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Black beauty should be celebrated 24/7. But that’s not always the case.

Which is why cosmetic company Black Radiance is launching their #BlackBeautyMatters campaign. In a video for the campaign, black beauty influencers and a few of the company’s team members get candid about their personal journeys to being confident in their gloriously melanin-filled beauty. 

Model and YouTuber Katrina Duckett said that there’s always been a lack of representation in the cosmetic industry, a limited number of products for people of color and a lack of knowledge about skin with melanin in the industry.

Cocoa Swatches creator Ofunne Amaka said people often try to put limitations on black beauty. 

“A lot of times people try to put what black beauty is into a box,” Amaka said. “I think part of loving who you are is not trying to fit yourself into one of those boxes. It’s about accepting your uniqueness.”

Black Radiance marketing coordinator Lana Gregg said the varying images and types of black beauty is what makes it so special.

“We come in all different shades, all different types, ages, sizes. At the end of the day, we all stand together an represent black beauty,” she said.

The video also features the brands director of marketing Claire Dennis and make up artist Clarence Montrell, who said black people should take pride in their features. 

Vice president of marketing K.Parris MacDonald said the message behind the campaign is simple:

“Black beauty matters because black is beautiful. Black Radiance celebrates the beauty of our history, from the fairest of us all, to the fiercely dark. We want to celebrate you!”

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An intrepid team of high school journalism students in Kansas is receiving nationwide recognition after an investigative piece questioning their incoming principal’s qualifications led to her abrupt resignation this week.

Amy Robertson, who had been hired in March and planned to undertake the leading role at Pittsburg High School in July, resigned from the top position on Tuesday, the school district announced. The news came four days after the school’s student-run paper, the Booster Redux, ran a front-page story that questioned Robertson’s background.

The report said the students typically file a story on new administrators, and with their superintendent’s encouragement, reached out to interview Robertson, who currently lives in Dubai. During their discussion with her, they said, Robertson “presented incomplete answers, conflicting dates and inconsistencies in her responses.”

Such issues included her having obtained her masters and doctorate degrees from Corllins University. Quick online searches found it was accused of being a “diploma mill” where anyone can purchase degrees and certifications.

Robertson, when reached by The Kansas City Star, said she received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Tulsa and her Corllins degrees in 1994 and 2010 when “there was no issue.” She added that she had no comment on the students’ questions, “because their concerns are not based on facts.” 

U.S. Department of Education officials told the Star there was no evidence that Corllins is currently in operation, nor is there any record of it having closed since 1986.

Both the school’s website and Facebook page ― which appears to feature photos of people taken from other websites, including the University of South Florida ― appear defunct. Requests for comment from the school were not immediately returned.

Emily Smith, who served as the high school paper’s adviser, told the Washington Post that Robinson was unable to produce a transcript from the University of Tulsa to authenticate her undergraduate degree when asked by the school district’s superintendent, Destry Brown.

It wasn’t just Robertson’s education that caused concern, however.

When the students conducted additional online searches, they found news articles from 2012 that accused Robertson of trying to run a private school in Dubai without proper permits. That reportedly led to Dubai’s education authorities temporarily suspending the license of the school, Dubai American Scientific School.

“That raised a red flag,” 17-year-old high school junior Maddie Baden, who was among the six student reporters, told the Star of their online sleuthing. “If students could uncover all of this, I want to know why the adults couldn’t find this.”

Smith, speaking to the Post, praised the students for unraveling the facts even when pressured to butt out of the faculty’s affairs.

“Everybody kept telling them, ‘stop poking your nose where it doesn’t belong,’” Smith said.

Investigative journalist Todd Wallack, who is a member of the Boston Globe’s Spotlight Team, also recognized the students’ work on social media.

In a statement, the school board said that they are working to find a new principal. 

Robertson did not immediately return requests for comment on Wednesday.

A spokesperson for the school board told The Huffington Post the district’s superintendent plans to meet with the student reporters on Wednesday to thank them for their work. He declined to say if or how the district’s vetting process of new hires will change.

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The growing tension between Turkey and its Western allies, which was further heightened during the Obama administration, is narrowing the space for cooperation between the two sides and in fact is progressively worsening. Erdogan’s hope that he and President Trump would improve their ties as members of NATO has dramatically diminished. Washington and the EU still deeply disagree with Ankara on a host of issues, which are unlikely to be resolved on a mutually gainful basis any time in the foreseeable future.

Turkey’s growing retreat from Western values may have already reached a point of no return. Erdogan has removed Turkey from the Western orbit and set the alliance on a collision course. The falling-out is attributed to the following troubling developments over the past several years.

The most daunting disagreement between the U.S./EU and Turkey is Erdogan’s systematic destruction of every democratic pillar in his country, including gross human rights violations, closing major media outlets, jailing scores of journalists, and forcefully quelling peaceful demonstrations. In particular, Erdogan exploited the July 2016 attempted military coup to incarcerate tens of thousands of educators, judges, military personnel, lawyers, and anyone else he chose to accuse of plotting against the government. Sadly, the West’s public reaction to Erdogan’s onslaught on human rights was largely underplayed out of concerns that Turkey is still an ally and actively involved in the fight against ISIS.

In this fight, the U.S. from the start has backed the Syrian Kurds and provided its militia (the PYD) with money and military equipment. Whereas the PYD has proven to be outstanding fighters in the battle against ISIS, Erdogan views them as a terrorist organization which is collaborating with the military arm of the Turkish Kurds’ Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Erdogan has threatened that he would not allow the U.S. to access Turkey’s Incirlik Air Base if the US continues to support the PYD and prevent the Turkish army from active participation in the fight to retake Raqqa, which would have allowed Ankara to establish a permanent presence in Syria. What irks the U.S. is that instead of focusing on defeating ISIS, Erdogan is fighting the U.S.’s ally (the PYD) which undermines the coalition’s efforts to defeat ISIS.

During the past six years Erdogan began to publicly, with the support of his Islamist AK Party, embrace a religious narrative, and has taken many practical and symbolic steps to Islamize Turkey. He embarked on building thousands of new mosques including 80 in various universities, introduced Islamic studies in school curricula, and legalized the wearing of headscarves for women. In addition, he made Islamic credentials the litmus test for any government post. Erdogan made no secret of his ambition to become the leader of the Sunni Muslim world. Many in the West believe that he is determined to create an Islamic Sunni state fashioned after Shiite Iran, which runs contrary to the Western principle of separation of church and state.

Another conflict between the U.S. and Erdogan was precipitated over Turkey’s demand that the U.S. extradite Fethullah Gülen, whom Erdogan accused of being behind the unsuccessful military coup. Whereas the Turkish government insists that it has provided indisputable evidence that justifies his extradition, the Trump administration (like its predecessor) maintains that it found no sufficient evidence to warrant Gülen’s extradition. In any case, the State Department contends that the Gülen case is not a political matter but falls strictly within the domain of the judiciary. Nevertheless, the conflict over Gülen’s fate continues to sour U.S.-Turkey relations.

Erdogan’s propensity to bully his Western allies has lately reached a tipping point. In recent months, he escalated his criticism of the EU and threatened to annul the agreement over the readmission of refugees who have crossed over illegally into Europe if the EU does not permit visa-free entry for Turkish citizens, as the agreement stipulated. Erdogan’s habitual bullying of his Western allies raises serious doubts about his reliability as a trusted partner and uncertainty about the future of their bilateral relations, especially in connection with issues of national security.

In recent weeks, the tension between the two sides further escalated because of European (especially Germany’s and the Netherlands’) unwillingness to allow Turkish ministers to hold campaign rallies among the Turks living in the EU in support of the upcoming referendum that would grant Erdogan near-absolute powers. He compared the Netherlands and Germany to ‘Nazis and fascists,’ a charge that inflamed the Germans in particular, who are understandably sensitive about the Nazi era. The irony is that Erdogan vehemently denies the Ottomans’ role in the genocide of over a million Armenians, and becomes enraged when this horrific historic episode is attributed to the Ottomans.

Despite being a NATO member, Turkey is flirting with Russia, which raises serious questions about Erdogan’s loyalty and commitment to the seven decades-old alliance. Erdogan has recently stated that Russia could become an alternate ally to the West, and he is seriously considering purchasing the Russian-made S-400 air defense system. Even though Erdogan might not follow through with his public conjecture about future ties with Russia, the fact that he is even entertaining the thought that he is willing, under certain circumstances, to ally himself with the West’s staunch enemy, sends a chilling signal to the U.S. and Europe.

More recently, the tension between the U.S. and Turkey was further heightened due to the arrest by the FBI of Mehmet Atilla, vice president for international banking of the state-owned Halkbank, for his violation of U.S.-led sanctions against Iran by assisting Reza Zarrab, a major gold trader who is awaiting trial in the U.S. It appears that Zarrab acted as an in-between for Turkey and Iran to arrange for Ankara to buy gas and oil from Iran in exchange for gold, which is difficult to trace. Halkbank played a significant role in these transactions, which the Erdogan government supported in violation of U.S. sanctions.

Given the continuing deterioration in the relationship between the West and Turkey under Erdogan, Turkey’s prospect of becoming a member of the EU is essentially over. Moreover, the rise of Islamic extremism has left the EU with little appetite to admit into its ‘Christian’ club an Islamic state governed by a dictator, which is totally inconsistent with Western sociopolitical values. Meanwhile, Turkey’s potential of becoming a true Islamic democracy is wholly and perhaps irrevocably squandered.

In addition, given that Turkey’s population is roughly 75 million, it will be second only to Germany with 80 million. As a member of the EU, Turkey would be in a position to influence the development of every economic, political, and security policy. For the majority of EU members to admit an Islamic state, especially in the wake of the United Kingdom’s departure, is simply a non-starter.

Even more disconcerting is the fact that it is no longer a secret that Turkey’s viability and importance as a NATO member is being discussed not only because of Erdogan’s unruly behavior, but also because Turkey under his stewardship is in violation of the NATO charter. The charter specifically stipulates that the signatories “are determined to safeguard the freedom, common heritage and civilization of their peoples, founded on the principles of democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law”—all of which are being grossly violated by Erdogan.

It is time for the U.S. and the EU to stop downplaying the profound and growing cleavage with Turkey over the many deeply contentious points between the two sides. As long as Erdogan remains in power, their divorce from one another is moving forward at a rapid pace, and there are no powerful voices on either side to sound the alarm about the impending breakup.

It is now left to the Turkish people who want a secular and democratic Turkey with Islamic values to say NO in the April 16 referendum to amend the constitution and deny Erdogan the dictatorial powers he is seeking. Moreover, defying him in the referendum would potentially accelerate his departure from the political scene.

This will save Turkey from being governed by Islamic despotism, and by popular demand gradually restore the country to the Western orbit as envisioned by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Turkish Republic.

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Two years after the Women’s Mosque of America opened its doors in Los Angeles, California is about to become home to another women-led mosque ― just the second of its kind in the U.S.

Qal’bu Maryam Women’s Mosque will open with Friday prayers on April 14, 2017 in Berkeley, California. Unlike the Women’s Mosque of America, which hosts women’s-only Friday prayers, Qal’bu Maryam will welcome both men and women to worship. But like the Los Angeles congregation ― as well as other women’s mosques around the world ― services will be led entirely by women.

Mosques are often segregated by gender, sometimes with wall dividers marking off each area. Women often sit in the back or in a separate room and occasionally have a different entrance than men. A number of Muslim women have spoken out in articles and on social media about what they feel to be “inadequate” accommodations for women in many mosques.

Chicago activist Hind Makki started a Tumblr project in 2012 called “Side Entrance,” where Muslim women around the world could share photos of their prayer spaces. Makki found that many men responded to the project with surprise.

“They just had no idea that this was somewhat typical of women’s experiences at a mosque — that you go to a mosque and you don’t see a dome; you don’t see the imam, certainly; you don’t see the architecture — you see a big wall in front of you,” she told NPR in 2014.

Qal’bu Maryam founder Rabi’a Keeble said the Berkeley worship space will be different.

Everyone is welcome: new converts, reverts, born Muslims, immigrants, black, white, brown, all genders.”
Qal’bu Maryam Women’s Mosque

“When you come into our service you will see that women are sitting in the front,” Keeble told The Huffington Post. “A woman will be giving the khutbah, the sermon, which is not done in a traditional mosque setting.”

Qal’bu Maryam means “Maryam’s Heart” in Arabic, and the mosque’s name is a reference to Mary, the mother of Jesus. The name is “fitting,” the mosque’s website states, for a Muslim worship space “which holds dear, and recognizes the sistership between us and our Christian and Jewish allies.”

The mosque will aptly be hosted at the Starr King School of the Ministry, a multi-religious seminary from which Keeble received a Master’s degree in religious leadership and social justice. The mosque isn’t officially affiliated with the seminary, but Keeble said she hopes it will become a fixture in the community that beckons students and local residents alike.

“This is a place of inclusivity,” Qal’bu Maryam’s website states. “Everyone is welcome: new converts, reverts, born Muslims, immigrants, black, white, brown, all genders.”

Internationally, women’s mosques are in the minority, but they’re by no means unprecedented. As Women’s Mosque of America founder M. Hasna Maznavi pointed out in a 2015 HuffPost blog, “Women’s mosques exist in at least a dozen countries around the world, including China, Syria, India, Egypt, Palestine, and even ultra-conservative countries like Yemen.” And there’s a long history of women serving as imams in China, where the oldest surviving women’s mosque dates back to 1820.

The role an imam in a mosque is similar to that of a church pastor, Keeble noted. Imams deliver sermons, officiate weddings, conduct holiday services and more. Traditionally that role is filled by a man. But Keeble, Maznavi, and other women’s mosque founders argue there’s nothing that should keep Muslim women from stepping into religious leadership.

“The Quran doesn’t say women can’t be imams, but it’s been the tradition,” Keeble told HuffPost. She hopes to change that by not only inviting Muslim women scholars to deliver khutbahs, or sermons, but also by training those interested in learning how to conduct services at the mosque. 

The founder said she hopes especially to give a voice to Muslim women of color, including a broad spectrum of racial and ethnic backgrounds.

“Women need to be empowered to do what they’re called to do,” Keeble said. “If your calling is to be an imam, come try it out. Come study, and no one is going to tell you that because you’re female you can’t do it.”

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The structures of stem cells can vary wildly, even if they’re genetically identical — and that could be critical to predicting the onset of diseases like cancer. But how do you know what a stem cell will look like until it’s already formed? That’s w…