Remember Christian Cooper, the Black bird watcher who went viral after dealing with a Central Park Karen? Well, he has an Emmy now! That’s right, Cooper’s Disney+ series, “Extraordinary Birder with Christian Cooper,” won a Daytime Emmy over the weekend.

A quick refresher in case you forgot: in 2020, Cooper went viral in a video where a white woman, Amy Cooper (no relation), called the police on him after he simply asked her to leash her dog (in an area where leashing is required). Amy Cooper said, “an African-American man threatening my life,” on the call, which Christian, thankfully, caught entirely on camera, proving his innocence in the viral video footage.

While the unfortunate incident led to serious consequences for Amy (she was terminated from her job and received charges of false reporting), thankfully Cooper was able to take some pretty sour lemons and make lemonade, landing his own television series with National Geographic and Disney+.

Cooper won in the “Outstanding Daytime Personality – Non-Daily” category, taking to the Daytime Emmys stage to share his gratitude with his peers and those watching at home. The openly gay host said, “This is an unexpected journey from being a closeted queer kid in the 1970s and a Black kid in the almost totally then all-white field of birding, which makes this all the more thrilling.”

He continued to say in his speech that the “world has changed” and that, “no matter what anybody says or does we are not going back. We will only move forward together.”

To read this article in its entirety, visit The Root

Recently Revolt revealed new leadership since Sean “Diddy” Combs—who founded the media and television company—stepped down and sold his majority stake. Try guessing who will take over.

The company’s current employees are set to become the biggest shareholder group of Revolt.

CEO Detavio Samuels explained the change in a statement. “We are stepping into the most revolutionary chapter yet for Revolt. When I joined in 2020, I quickly realized two things: Our mission is bigger than any individual, and we are the largest engine for transformative change that just so happens to be a media company,” Samuels said.

He continued:

“Over the past four years, this engine has created countless opportunities to build wealth for our community and empower creators and entrepreneurs globally, which includes our reinvestment of $50 million annually into the Black community, funding Black entrepreneurs with no exchange of equity, and ensuring creators have upside participation in the content IP we co-create…We are most proud of the transformation that our teams will experience as they shift from being employees to owners of the business they are helping to build. Black culture is global culture, and REVOLT’s superpower is being the home for creators that move culture globally, allowing us to build the most powerful storytelling engine for Black voices.”

Under the new structure, Revolt will stay Black-owned (around 80% of the staff are people of color). Combs left the company in November 2023 following a damning lawsuit from his former girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura. Ventura stated that Combs sexually and physically abused her throughout the course of their relationship.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A judge on Monday reset the trial date for a man charged with killing rapper Young Dolph in a daytime shooting ambush at a cookie shop in his hometown of Memphis, Tennessee.

Shelby County Judge Jennifer J. Mitchell set a Sept. 23 trial date for Justin Johnson, 26. He has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of Young Dolph, who was buying cookies when he was gunned down in November 2021 at a bakery located near his childhood home.

Johnson’s trial had been set to start Monday. However, prosecutors and Johnson’s lawyer filed a joint motion May 14 asking the judge to delay the trial to allow them to present expert witnesses to discuss cellphone location records.

Mitchell ruled in February that the trial jury will come from outside of Memphis because of intense media coverage of the 36-year-old rapper’s slaying, which shocked Memphis and the entertainment world.

Authorities have said two men got out of a stolen Mercedes-Benz and fired shots into Makeda’s Homemade Cookies before fleeing. As they searched for the suspects, police released photos taken from surveillance video that captured the shooting.

To read the article in its entirety, visit The Associated Press