Not just a random homeless girl either but one of our very own, Bri, today heard that she was to be given the opportunity to work with Elle Magazine’s advice columnist E. Jean. So, just how does a homeless girl get to become an intern at one of the world’s most prestigious fashion magazines?
The story goes back to April when she came across an ad last looking for writers/fashionistas to do an advice columnist competition.
“I believe they were specifically looking for ‘the Next Carrie Bradshaw’. OK, I have to admit, I’ve never seen a single episode of ‘Sex and the City’. Yes, I’m a traitor to my gender.”
It was more a shot in the dark than anything and she was quite certain she would never hear anything back from them but figured she would send in a quick letter with her story and see what happened.
“I mean, I’m less of a writer than a blogger, but I do love writing, and I love fashion, especially vintage and retro clothing. I bet I could out-cute SJP and her super-overpaid stylist any day, haha.”
Only she did hear back from them:
“…a certain chika was called in for a screen test this week. Guess who? (hint: me!!!!!)”
Of course now she found out what she was actually getting herself into. She discovered that the little competition she thought she had entered was in fact a reality tv show, produced by Freemantle Media of American Idol/America’s Got Talent fame.
“And the prize? An internship at Elle magazine, being mentored by a very funny, slightly crazy, super-awesome columnist whom I’ve read for years.”
Everyone remembers Chris Gardner, subject of the movie Pursuit Of Happyness, right? For those that don’t know the story, Chris Gardner earned a high-profile internship while living homeless - an internship which enabled him to go on to become a giant in the financial sector and multi-millionnaire.
However, it was too early to start thinking about movie deals just yet as this was certainly not to be the end of the story. On the day of the screen test, nerves got the better of her and in her own words, “I bombed it.”
Now regular readers here who know Bri also know how spirited and determined she can be and that she is not one to give up on something easily. She then took it upon herself to write in to E. Jean herself via her column at Elle.
Dear E. Jean: I’m currently homeless and living in a Wal-Mart parking lot. I’m educated, I have never done drugs, and I am not mentally ill. I have a strong employment history and am a career executive assistant. The instability sucks, but I’m rocking it as best as I can. Recently I stumbled across a job notice (a reality show casting call for executive assistants) and was intrigued enough to apply. It was a shot in the dark, and I assumed I’d never hear back. Surprise! I was called in this week! And I promptly bombed it. When I found out who was involved in the show I got kind of starstruck and completely froze up. My usual personality did not radiate. My question: How does one get another shot when one screws up a job interview? —Homeless, but Not Hopeless
Once more, Bri never expected to receive any response so you can imagine her surprise when she discovered not only that her letter had been published in Elle Magazine but also to the response that E. Jean had written to her.
“Of course, the cleverest way to land a good job (and get an apartment) is to already have a good job/internship/volunteer position. This strategy permits you to impress the interviewers with the superhuman passion you have for your current projects.”
“This is what you did with your letter: You knocked me out with your courage and spirit. I am therefore, Miss Not Hopeless, offering you a four-month internship……. If you accept this internship, you’ll telecommute to my East Coast mountain office one hour a day, six days a week. At the end of the four months, if you don’t have a job and an awesome place to live, I will become your intern.”
There was one more small potential problem, the article was a month old already and Bri only found out today. Some frantic emailing and a little cyber-stalking later though and Bri was able to make contact and verify that the position was still available to her. She starts September 1st.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/25/elle-magazine-offers-inte_n_268605.html
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Commentary: Beating the homeless is cruel, not cool
CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (CNN) -- Over the last two calendar years, more Americans in the United States were killed in a little-noticed spate of unprovoked attacks than were killed by terrorists, in large commercial jet crashes or in racial hate crimes.
Since 1999, more than 240 vulnerable homeless Americans have been stabbed, beaten, drowned, shot or burned to death in a revolting display of one of the last socially tolerated prejudices, this one based on class.
Despite being prime targets of prejudice and violence, particularly in today's youth subculture, the homeless are routinely excluded from lessons related to tolerance, as well as from official data collection and hate-crime penalty enhancement laws.
A newly released report from the National Coalition for the Homeless documented 27 unprovoked, apparently bias-related homicides by attackers in the United States last year, down one from the previous year and the second-highest number of killings since 2001.
After bottoming mid-decade, the number killed has not dipped below 20 a year since 2005. In contrast, the FBI documented only 12 hate-crime homicides nationally for the two most recently available calendar years combined.
According to the NCH and the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism, nearly 2 1/2 times more homeless people in America have been killed over the past 10 years in apparent unprovoked bias homicides than the total for all the other hate- crime homicides -- on the basis of race, religion, national origin, disability and sexual orientation -- combined.
Like other hate crime perpetrators, these attackers are typically young male "thrill offenders" seeking excitement, with 58 percent of assailants over the past 10 years falling in the 13-19 age range. In 2006, three teenagers out for fun attacked homeless people in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with baseball bats, killing one of their victims, 45-year-old Norris Gaynor. One pleaded guilty and the two others were convicted of murder last September after the jury saw graphic surveillance tape of one of their nonlethal beatings from earlier in the evening.
These attacks exclude the large number of other types of crimes involving the homeless, such as personal disputes, homeless-on-homeless violence, robbery, drugs or murder for life insurance proceeds.
The August issue of Maxim, a youth-oriented magazine targeted at college-aged males, joked about last weekend's National Hobo Convention in Britt, Iowa, in a blurb titled "Hunt the Homeless." The journal quipped "Kill one for fun. We're 87 percent sure it's legal."
In previous violent attacks, some assailants have referenced degrading and violent depictions in popular culture such as "Bumfights" either during their crimes or in subsequent interviews with authorities, with some even filming the events.
"Bumfights" is a popular violent video series that sold hundreds of thousands of tapes and DVDs before going viral on the Internet. The film series sets a new low in American popular culture, featuring fights between homeless men plied by the producers with alcohol, as well as sadistic parodies of the late Australian conservationist "crocodile hunter" Steve Irwin.
These "skits" feature terrified sleeping homeless people who are startled awake and forcibly restrained with duct tape by "hunters" narrating their attacks with feigned Australian accents. Samuel Bowhay of Grinnell College found almost 86,000 videos on YouTube last month with "bum" in the title, thousands more than videos with other derogatory prejudiced epithets.
While homeless advocates lack the political and financial infrastructure often needed to institute policy reform, the frequency and brutality of the bias attacks have renewed focus on the nature of this violent form of prejudice and ways to address it.
Last week, District of Columbia Mayor Adrian Fenty signed legislation adding homeless status to the district's hate-crime law. Maryland, an early adopter of such measures in the 1980s, will join Maine in adding homeless status to its hate-crime law on October 1.
Other jurisdictions such as Alaska; Puerto Rico; Los Angeles County, California; and Seattle, Washington, also have taken various steps to recognize homeless status in their laws, data collection, educational efforts or procedures.
In almost a dozen other states, including California, Texas, South Carolina and Florida, legislation has been introduced over the past three years to add homeless status to their hate-crime laws as well. Nationally, Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas has introduced legislation to add homelessness to federal hate-crime laws and data-collection efforts.
These efforts are long overdue. A primary purpose of hate-crime laws is the targeted deterrent message to would-be offenders that they face real punishment and social disapproval. Moreover, the key criminological criteria for coverage in hate-crime law apply seamlessly to homeless status as well:
1. a significant additional risk of violent victimization;
2. discriminatory selection;
3. established prejudice against a socially identifiable class;
4. identical offenders such as bigoted skinheads or young male thrill offenders who share identifiable characteristics and motivations.
Arguments against including provisions in hate-crime laws for the homeless are recycled ones that were initially used unsuccessfully against other groups, like gays and lesbians. Too many additional groups dilute the laws, or homelessness is a changeable condition that most people wouldn't want, they argue. The fact is, millions of Americans have changed their religious affiliation and yet, just about all hate crime laws cover faith. Disability is a characteristic that, like homelessness, most people would not seek out, yet it too is covered.
Adding the homeless to hate-crime laws, tolerance education and data-collection efforts must not be obstructed. When hate makes a fist, the laws of a civilized society must decisively block the blow in the most forceful and unambiguous way possible.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Brian Levin and Michael Stoops.
Since 1999, more than 240 vulnerable homeless Americans have been stabbed, beaten, drowned, shot or burned to death in a revolting display of one of the last socially tolerated prejudices, this one based on class.
Despite being prime targets of prejudice and violence, particularly in today's youth subculture, the homeless are routinely excluded from lessons related to tolerance, as well as from official data collection and hate-crime penalty enhancement laws.
A newly released report from the National Coalition for the Homeless documented 27 unprovoked, apparently bias-related homicides by attackers in the United States last year, down one from the previous year and the second-highest number of killings since 2001.
After bottoming mid-decade, the number killed has not dipped below 20 a year since 2005. In contrast, the FBI documented only 12 hate-crime homicides nationally for the two most recently available calendar years combined.
According to the NCH and the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism, nearly 2 1/2 times more homeless people in America have been killed over the past 10 years in apparent unprovoked bias homicides than the total for all the other hate- crime homicides -- on the basis of race, religion, national origin, disability and sexual orientation -- combined.
Like other hate crime perpetrators, these attackers are typically young male "thrill offenders" seeking excitement, with 58 percent of assailants over the past 10 years falling in the 13-19 age range. In 2006, three teenagers out for fun attacked homeless people in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with baseball bats, killing one of their victims, 45-year-old Norris Gaynor. One pleaded guilty and the two others were convicted of murder last September after the jury saw graphic surveillance tape of one of their nonlethal beatings from earlier in the evening.
These attacks exclude the large number of other types of crimes involving the homeless, such as personal disputes, homeless-on-homeless violence, robbery, drugs or murder for life insurance proceeds.
The August issue of Maxim, a youth-oriented magazine targeted at college-aged males, joked about last weekend's National Hobo Convention in Britt, Iowa, in a blurb titled "Hunt the Homeless." The journal quipped "Kill one for fun. We're 87 percent sure it's legal."
In previous violent attacks, some assailants have referenced degrading and violent depictions in popular culture such as "Bumfights" either during their crimes or in subsequent interviews with authorities, with some even filming the events.
"Bumfights" is a popular violent video series that sold hundreds of thousands of tapes and DVDs before going viral on the Internet. The film series sets a new low in American popular culture, featuring fights between homeless men plied by the producers with alcohol, as well as sadistic parodies of the late Australian conservationist "crocodile hunter" Steve Irwin.
These "skits" feature terrified sleeping homeless people who are startled awake and forcibly restrained with duct tape by "hunters" narrating their attacks with feigned Australian accents. Samuel Bowhay of Grinnell College found almost 86,000 videos on YouTube last month with "bum" in the title, thousands more than videos with other derogatory prejudiced epithets.
While homeless advocates lack the political and financial infrastructure often needed to institute policy reform, the frequency and brutality of the bias attacks have renewed focus on the nature of this violent form of prejudice and ways to address it.
Last week, District of Columbia Mayor Adrian Fenty signed legislation adding homeless status to the district's hate-crime law. Maryland, an early adopter of such measures in the 1980s, will join Maine in adding homeless status to its hate-crime law on October 1.
Other jurisdictions such as Alaska; Puerto Rico; Los Angeles County, California; and Seattle, Washington, also have taken various steps to recognize homeless status in their laws, data collection, educational efforts or procedures.
In almost a dozen other states, including California, Texas, South Carolina and Florida, legislation has been introduced over the past three years to add homeless status to their hate-crime laws as well. Nationally, Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas has introduced legislation to add homelessness to federal hate-crime laws and data-collection efforts.
These efforts are long overdue. A primary purpose of hate-crime laws is the targeted deterrent message to would-be offenders that they face real punishment and social disapproval. Moreover, the key criminological criteria for coverage in hate-crime law apply seamlessly to homeless status as well:
1. a significant additional risk of violent victimization;
2. discriminatory selection;
3. established prejudice against a socially identifiable class;
4. identical offenders such as bigoted skinheads or young male thrill offenders who share identifiable characteristics and motivations.
Arguments against including provisions in hate-crime laws for the homeless are recycled ones that were initially used unsuccessfully against other groups, like gays and lesbians. Too many additional groups dilute the laws, or homelessness is a changeable condition that most people wouldn't want, they argue. The fact is, millions of Americans have changed their religious affiliation and yet, just about all hate crime laws cover faith. Disability is a characteristic that, like homelessness, most people would not seek out, yet it too is covered.
Adding the homeless to hate-crime laws, tolerance education and data-collection efforts must not be obstructed. When hate makes a fist, the laws of a civilized society must decisively block the blow in the most forceful and unambiguous way possible.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Brian Levin and Michael Stoops.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Deputies raid Hillsborough homeless camps
Updated: Friday, 31 Jul 2009, 6:04 AM EDT
Published : Thursday, 30 Jul 2009, 10:55 PM EDT
Gloria Gomez
BRANDON - Is it picking and piling on the downtrodden, or keeping the community clean and safe?
Every few months the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office conducts raids on the homeless in the county.
Businesses and residents nearby complain about the crime and the mess that litter makeshift campsites that the homeless set up.
"You'll see hundreds of beer cans, urine, feces – they're using these people's property as their restroom facilities," said Corporal Tracy Reeves.
But some of the homeless say they are easy targets.
"I'm being arrested because I'm homeless. Put that on the news," said Ross Thomas, as he was led away in handcuffs during Thursday's raid. Hillsborough deputies arrested him because they said he had an open container 500 feet from a business.
Harrold Prichard is on his way to jail for an outstanding warrant and solicitation charges. The deputy smelled alcohol on him and questioned him about it.
"How much have you had to drink today?" the officer asks. "Not very darn much. Officers like you been around all day," Prichard responded.
Deputies say there's a difference between homeless people who have lost their jobs and a homeless vagrant.
"The vagrants that are out here on drugs on alcohol, and stand on street corners, and are knocking on people's windows as they drive up to an intersection," said Corporal Reeves.
Deputies say their goal is to do a clean sweep of the homeless from Brandon to Seffner. They say residents deserve a clean, safe community to call home.
Published : Thursday, 30 Jul 2009, 10:55 PM EDT
Gloria Gomez
BRANDON - Is it picking and piling on the downtrodden, or keeping the community clean and safe?
Every few months the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office conducts raids on the homeless in the county.
Businesses and residents nearby complain about the crime and the mess that litter makeshift campsites that the homeless set up.
"You'll see hundreds of beer cans, urine, feces – they're using these people's property as their restroom facilities," said Corporal Tracy Reeves.
But some of the homeless say they are easy targets.
"I'm being arrested because I'm homeless. Put that on the news," said Ross Thomas, as he was led away in handcuffs during Thursday's raid. Hillsborough deputies arrested him because they said he had an open container 500 feet from a business.
Harrold Prichard is on his way to jail for an outstanding warrant and solicitation charges. The deputy smelled alcohol on him and questioned him about it.
"How much have you had to drink today?" the officer asks. "Not very darn much. Officers like you been around all day," Prichard responded.
Deputies say there's a difference between homeless people who have lost their jobs and a homeless vagrant.
"The vagrants that are out here on drugs on alcohol, and stand on street corners, and are knocking on people's windows as they drive up to an intersection," said Corporal Reeves.
Deputies say their goal is to do a clean sweep of the homeless from Brandon to Seffner. They say residents deserve a clean, safe community to call home.
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