Three young women faced every daughter’s nightmare when their mother passed away from cancer. Before her passing, her children, Makia Underwood, 32, Zakia Clark, 29, and Tasha Clark, 27, began to wear hats and shirts that read “F— Cancer.” The “C” in “F—” is replaced by a breast cancer awareness ribbon. It was their way of addressing a disease that they watched steal their mother from them. “That’s how we feel,” Zakia Clark told Philly.com. “It took our mom away. It’s a demon. It’s the devil. There are no other words you can use to explain how you feel. You want cancer to get cancer and die.”

Their passionate stance against cancer got them in trouble. Zakia and Tasha were kicked out of King of Prussia Mall for wearing their “F— Cancer” hats last Sunday.

Philly.com reports:

The ladies had just sat down when a security guard approached them and, without a greeting, ordered: “‘Take your hats off.” Zakia took hers off, but Tasha, who once worked at the mall, told the guard she wanted to see something in writing. It was almost as if Tasha were channeling their mother’s strong spirit, Zakia said, and it inspired her to put her own hat back on.

“He said, ‘Since you don’t want to take your hat off, you can leave my mall,” Zakia recalled. “He stood there while we ate and threatened to call the cops.” [...] As the group was escorted to the mall office, Makia called and met up with them. Once they got to the office, the women were met by an Upper Merion Township police officer, who had been called to the mall by security guards.

“The officer said, ‘I find it offensive that you even have that hat that says ‘F— CANCER,’ ” Zakia said. “He said, ‘It’s their mall, they want you out, you have to get out.’ The women were escorted out, and two security cars were waiting for them at their car just to make sure they left, Zakia said.”

When news outlets began looking into the incident, a spokesman for the company that owns King of Prussia Mall, Les Morris, called Zakia to apologize.

He told the People Paper: “Certainly this could have been handled in a much more empathic and sensitive manner. We’re very sorry about her loss and wanted to apologize for the way her party was treated.”

He added: “I do think this is an entirely different situation than a 16-year-old kid with a swear word on his T-shirt cruising the mall. We need to be empathic, sympathetic, and listen and make sure that we’re approaching each situation as it comes up.”

Zakia accepted Morris’ apology and in good faith, the daughters changing a planned protest at the mall entrance into an awareness rally about cancer.

What are your thoughts on the incident, Clutchettes?

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A London soldier was brutally killed in the U.K. last night as part of a harrowing terrorist attack. Lee Rigby, the 25 year-old drummer and father of a 2 year-old, was on active duty when he was reportedly attacked by two assailants at the gate of the Royal Artillery Barracks (location shown above).

The men allegedly hit Rigby with a car before beheading him with meat cleavers and machetes in front of a shellshocked crowd of dozens of civilians.

After the beheading, the attackers shouted “Allahu Akbar” and demanded that passerbys take video of them. In front of the camera, one of the men, holding knives and a meat cleaver with hands soaked in blood, defended the attack, saying: “We swear by Almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you. Your people will never be safe. The only reason we have done this is because Muslims are dying by British soldiers every day.”

It took the police around twenty minutes to arrive. During that time, the attackers walked up and down the street with their bloody weapons as passerbys confronted them. When the police arrived, the assailants rushed at them. The two men were shot and later taken to a hospital for their injuries.

The story of a UK mom who bravely went toward the victim is getting international attention. She is shown in pictures calmly addressing the attackers, who both had weapons in hand. She was acknowledged by British Prime Minister David Cameron.

The gruesome murder was documented on Twitter as passerbys posted the attack in detail as it occurred, with followers reacting in shock and outrage.

The post UK Soldier Killed in Horrifying Terrorist Attack appeared first on Clutch Magazine.

A missing Chicago infant has not been found, but authorities believe he was killed and dumped in a knapsack in an undisclosed area. ABC Chicago is reporting one-year-old Bryeon Hunter was beaten to death with a belt and plastic hangers by his mother Lakeisha Baker and her boyfriend Michael Scott. The couple left him overnight in their apartment’s bathroom where he died from his injuries.

Baker and Scott concocted an unbelievable tale to cover their alleged crime. Baker, 22, called police April 16 and claimed she was abducted and beaten by three Hispanic men. She also told authorities her son was kidnapped, leading to the issuance of an Illinois Amber Alert. Police questioned both Baker and Scott Wednesday and immediately canceled the alert according to the Chicago Tribune.

Hunter’s mother told authorities she and her boyfriend beat the child because he wouldn’t stop crying and covered his mouth to prevent his grandmother from hearing his screams.

Prosecutors alleged the child’s grandmother, who lived in another apartment in the same building, yelled: “What’s going on up there” during the beating.

The Chicago Tribune reports Baker attempted to scrub her child’s death from the apartment, cleaning it thoroughly to remove all traces of the killing. She allegedly threw out hangers and towels and bleached the bathroom where the child died.

Baker claims Scott dumped the child in a river at First Avenue and Oak Street in Maywood, Ill. before concocting the story about the abduction. The couple rehearsed the tale and coerced Baker’s four-year-old son to memorize the story as well. Baker and Scott also called each other’s phones to make it appear as if they weren’t together at the time of the child’s death.

Scott called 911 April 16 around 2:15 p.m. to report the false abduction. Baker told authorities she was walking with her son to McDonald’s when they were both kidnapped. She claimed the three Hispanic men drove behind a Burger King, beat her leaving two black eyes, and abducted her child after dropping her off 6^th Avenue and Main Street in Maywood, Ill.

Scott and Baker have both been charged with first-degree murder. Baker is being held without bond while bail was set at $750,000 for Scott.

The post Missing Infant’s Mother Charged with Murder appeared first on Clutch Magazine.

Kierrah Titus was one of seven African-American students that auditioned for the musical, which The Guide to Musical Theater refers to as “a black version of the perennial Wizard of Oz.” Titus was the only one of those seven students chosen and she was relegated to the ensemble dance troupe.

Titus’ mother, Letrice Titus, is one of the parents lodging a complaint against the school. She questions why no black students were selected for leading roles. “Are there no talented African-American students at C-NS?” L. Titus asked a reporter at the Post-Standard. “Was there any outreach to the African-American students in the school? Why didn’t the school just do The Wizard of Oz?”

Those are questions she posed to the musical director, Caryn Patterson, and other school officials in January. Titus requested a recasting of a play, with specific focus given to diversifying the cast. She alleges that the school dismissed her concerns.

I can remember the moment a high school dismissed mine as well. In one of the most diverse schools in a predominantly white school district, my first high school also cast a completely white cast in “The Wiz.” Many students were outraged, especially when so many of us auditioned and were gifted standing ovations. Like the Titus’, our angered response was considered “poor sportsmanship”  and we were chided for our behavior,

This is a blatant disregard for the black American experience and what “The Wiz” signifies for our community. We have few books, plays and movies that holistically represent elements of the black American experience. Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, and the other cast members in the film and on the stage captured “The Wizard of Oz” and made it relevant to us.

But Titus isn’t taking the slight without a ruckus. She will raise her questions at the North Syracuse Central School District Board of Education with support from the local chapter of the NAACP and other parents.

Preston Fagan, Cicero’s NAACP chapter president, thinks this is an important issue to address.

“To not let a black student have an acting role in this play is appalling,” Fagan told the Post-Standard. “It’s almost an insult.”

The post An All-White “The Wiz” Cast Causes Uproar appeared first on Clutch Magazine.

Lional Campbell’s son, Michael, died at the age of 3 from meningitis. Campbell, who is originally from Detroit, currently lives in Kentucky and is completely confused as to why he’s still paying child support.

“It took a lot out of me,” Campbell said of the battle which has become harder given the distance between where he now lives, and proceedings filed in the Wayne County Friend of the Court.

The Detroit courts claim that they were never informed that Michael died, and they blamed it on being inadequately staffed as the reason for the error. According to WXYZ, Campbell thought he was paying child support he owed for an older child born seven years before Michael. That older child is now 34.  Although Campbell requested an audit, he was still told that he owed around $20,000. This is when Campbell decided, after all of these years, to take matters into his own hands. Campbell drove to Detroit, and produced paperwork proving that his son died.

“The lady said ‘how you owe on a child been dead 23 years?’ I said I don’t know and she said we’ll do another audit.”  The court claims that despite the mistake, Campbell still owes $6,460.08, which he denies.  He will order another look into the amount before the government takes his return and puts it towards the balance.

WXYZ reached out to the mother of the deceased child, but she declined to comment.

The post Father Says He’s Paying Child Support For 3 Year Old Son Who Died 25 Years Ago appeared first on Clutch Magazine.

Tonya Battle, who has worked at Hurley Medical Center in Flint, Michigan for 25 years, filed a lawsuit against her managers for race-based discrimination, CNN reports. According to the complaint, a man approached the nurse while she was caring for his child in the neonatal intensive care unit at the hospital. He asked to speak to her supervisor and allegedly told her that he did not want any African Americans taking care of his baby. After the incident, Battle was reassigned.

A note reportedly appeared on the baby’s medical chart stating: “Please, no African-American nurses to care for … baby per dad’s request.” The order reportedly lasted for a month.

Battle’s attorney Julie Gafkay told CNN affiliate WNEM that the nurse was distraught by what happened.

“She was very upset. She was very offended,” Gafkay said.

The hospital later changed its mind after their lawyer objected the decision. The case is currently ongoing.

The post Man Requests ‘No Black Nurse Care’ for Baby appeared first on Clutch Magazine.

233 – The current number of mostly young lives lost to the Kiss Night Club fire in Santa Maria, Brazil. Nearly a hundred remain under medical treatment. The setting for this disaster was a university party. The evening was marked with music, dancing, and then what proved to be a lethal display of fireworks by one of the live band members. The pyrotechnics sparked a deadly fire. Panic set in and the crowd began surging towards a single exit. With the only opening obstructed by the massive struggle to escape, many victims succumbed to smoke inhalation or were trampled. The scene is shocking, but there is an important fact to consider: this has happened before.

Just last month in Natchez, Mississippi, the community opened a museum commemorating the Rhythm Night Club and the vicious 1940 fire that consumed both property and patrons. 209 people, mostly African-Americans, perished that night, in a way awfully similar to the nightmare in Brazil. Here also a single exit became the avenue of escape for scores of panic-stricken youth. All other exits had been blocked in order to prevent anyone from sneaking in. According to some reports, a single exit was used at Kiss Night Club as well but to prevent sneaking out without paying for drinks.

Minimal research reveals that deadly fires in night clubs are not an uncommon occurrence. In fact, they often give rise to reformations in fire codes. So how could this happen again?

Perhaps it’s time to realize that more individual effort is needed when it comes to ensuring personal safety. How many of us have found ourselves in some hole-in-the-wall club, so packed with bodies that you can barely lift your hand to wipe the sweat from your face? Now, how many of us can say that before entering such a scenario we truly considered our safety?

Natchez Fire Marshal Aaron Wesley urges that people make careful observations when entering such venues. Where are the exits? Is there more than one? Is the venue overcrowded? More often than not, our focus is on enjoying the night, not preparing for some potential disaster. But in doing so, we entrust our safety to the willingness of some businessman to comply with fire codes. And how often has history proven that businessman value profit over human life?

Does the disaster in Brazil have you questioning where you party? Will you be more observant or party just the same?

The post On The Brazil Night Club Fire and Turning a Blind Eye To Danger appeared first on Clutch Magazine.

The article is accompanied by a callous, sensational write-up: “A man was shot dead outside a Hollywood nightclub early Sunday morning in the throes of a massive brawl… and our photog captured it all.”

His devastated family, including his uncle Jason Andrews, is petitioning for TMZ to remove the video though they have yet to respond.

Jason said via Ebony.com:

“These people have no regard for the loved ones affected by this tragedy. I understand freedom of press but the line has to be drawn somewhere… What they did is wrong and they need to be held accountable. No one wants to see their loved one in this position, having this event viewed by millions of strangers is disgusting.”

What do you think, Clutchettes and Gents: should TMZ remove the video or are they allowed freedom of press?

Source

The post When Gossip Sites Go Too Far: TMZ Posts Video of L.A. Teen’s Murder appeared first on Clutch Magazine.

It’s been a difficult day, Clutchettes.

Our hearts and prayers go out to the families that were affected by today’s tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.

If this does not serve as a catalyst for our country to have a serious conversation about America’s culture of violence and the need for sensible gun control, I don’t know what will.

President Obama appears to agree. During a press conference earlier today, a tearful Mr. Obama told reporters politicians must “take meaningful action” as a result of this, and other tragedies, that have occurred in our recent history.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The post President Obama on the School Shooting in Connecticut: ‘Our Hearts Are Broken’ appeared first on Clutch Magazine.

The Last Fall is a television sports drama that showcases the challenges that young and coming-of-age NFL players face once their professional football careers end at the age of 25. It’s not all glitz and glam for Kyle Bishop, played by actor Lance Gross, who returns home broke and unemployed and has to make tough decisions about his career and personal life.

Despite how the media portrays the baller lifestyle, many players find the road off the field difficult. A caption in the film’s trailer states that “78% of all professional football players are either bankrupt, divorced or unemployed two years after leaving the game.”

Written and directed by Matthew A. Cherry, a former NFL wide-receiver turned filmmaker, The Last Fall will premiere on BET next Tuesday, December 18th at 7:30 p.m. Nichole Beharie also stars in the film, which will be released on DVD and VOD on January 15, 2013.

Perhaps a fair replacement for The Game? Will you be watching?

The post ‘The Last Fall’ Highlights Life Off the Field for NFL Players appeared first on Clutch Magazine.