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With more than 100 patents under his belt, Lanny Smoot has never been afraid to take his imagination to the next level. As a Disney Research Fellow, Smoot is in a position where he has access to a different type of freedom — one that helps him explore different concepts and bring them to life. As previously reported by AFROTECH™, Smoot was inducted into the 2024 National Inventors Hall of Fame. He’s also the first Disney Imagineer to receive the honor and the second in the company, aside from Walt Disney himself. “To be inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame means that you’ve made inventions that have changed the world in some sense, right? And it’s a great honor,” he told AFROTECH™ from his Walt Disney office in Los Angeles during an event to unveil the latest Disney Imagineer contributions, including the all-new Princess Tiana’s Bayou Adventure Animatronics. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Disney Parks (@disneyparks) “I didn’t know when the induction...
Apr 12, 2024
Chris Tucker has revealed his compensation for one of his most notable roles. In 1995, the comedian-turned- actor starred in “Friday,” which was directed by F. Gary Gray and written by Ice Cube and DJ Pooh, according to IMBd. Tucker played the character Smokey and landed the role due to his humorous performances while touring with “Def Comedy Jam” in the ’90s. “One day we were sitting around watching Def Comedy Jam, and we saw Chris [Tucker] perform, and me and Cube couldn’t stop laughing,” DJ Pooh told Complex. “We thought, ‘This dude would be able to play the hell out of Smokey. Let’s see if we can get him to come in and read for him.’ And that’s what happened, and it was over like that.” Friday would go on to gross $28.2 million worldwide, according to IMBd. The budget to create “Friday” was $2.3 million, Ice Cube revealed on X, formerly known as Twitter. He also added that actors on the film were paid according to the scale of the budget. For Tucker this equated to a $10,000...
Apr 4, 2024
The psychedelic medicine industry is expanding rapidly, with areas like Washington, D.C., and Cambridge, Massachusetts decriminalizing magic mushrooms in recent elections. This Black woman-led biotech company recently launched to show how psychedelic medicines can be used for women’s health. Aphrodite Health — a woman-focused biotech company — is introducing psychedelic medicines to address women’s mental and physical health challenges often overlooked by modern medicine. The startup launched on May 31 and is led by CEO Tesla La Touche, a Black woman healthcare professional with 20 years of experience. La Touche is clinically published and brings a wealth of experience in the surgical, biopharmaceutical and advanced, clinical technologies sector to her team. S he was confident in her work as she was launching Aphrodite Health. Still, she takes a lot of pride coming into this space as the first Afro-Indigenous CEO in the psychedelic medicine industry. “I have very intimate knowledge...
Aug 5, 2021
Generation Xers are emerging from the pandemic more wealthy and economically stable compared to other generations, specifically millennials. Reuters first reported this along with data collected by the U.S. Federal Reserve showing that members of Generation X saw their wealth jump more during Donald Trump’s presidential term and through the coronavirus pandemic. Generation Xers can be defined as those currently between the ages of 40 and 55; they come after the Baby Boomer generation, and right before Generation Y, also known as Millennials . Generation X hit a major turning point last year when its share of wealth, at 26.9 percent, passed its share of households which is 26.8 percent. But what does this mean? This means that Generation X’s wealth has surpassed the amount of households they account for in our population. Reuters coined Generation X as the ascendant generation because of this. When Trump took over as president in 2017, Generation Xers accounted for 34.6 million...
May 7, 2021
Darold “DJ” Kelly Jr.’s life was turned upside down when he was expelled from college for crimes he did not commit. Since reclaiming his innocence, Kelly has been focused on building an association to serve Black cybersecurity professionals. Born in Washington, D.C., Kelly was raised in Prince George’s County, Maryland. During his tenure at Howard University (HU) where he was studying political science, Kelly was “accused of violence” as he describes it, and he was ultimately expelled from the prominent HBCU in 2016. Kelly was three months shy of graduating from HU when he was forced to halt his educational journey, HBCU Buzz reported. “My story isn’t necessarily popular, that’s just what it is, and it was during a really bad time to get accused of violence.” Kelly told AfroTech in a video interview. “But I was accused of violent acts I never committed.” After being convicted, Kelly appealed his case and all of the charges were ultimately vacated in 2019. While he got his innocence...
Apr 8, 2021
Magic Johnson just teamed up with Cigna to tackle the effects of the global pandemic on LatinX, Black, and woman-owned businesses. According to the LA Sentinel , the basketball legend and president of the U.S. Commercial Business at Cigna, Mike Triplett will lead the conversation on the effects of the pandemic through a roundtable discussion. The collaboration for change seeks to make a ripple effect across the county and eventually the nation. Johnson shares there should be no surprise when it comes to the major differences in impact among ethnicities. “We lost 41% of the members of Black business owners since the pandemic, and 32% decline in Hispanic businesses and then [a] 25% decline in women-owned businesses,” said Johnson. “It’s so important that we first try to keep the doors open for women-owned, Black-owned, and Hispanic-owned businesses.” Cigna’s Triplett also shared his thoughts on the mission of his organization. “As a global health service company, Cigna’s mission is to...
Nov 6, 2020
Ashley Williams has mastered the art of practicing Black girl magic, and the proof is not only in her master’s but her law degree that she earned the exact same week. Before you ask — no, she wasn’t enrolled in a dual program, she actually attended two different universities located in two states at the same time. In 2019, Williams earned a master’s degree in political management from George Washington University in Washington, D.C., just two days later received her JD from the University of Pennsylvania, according to Because of Them We Can. To add to the abundance of Black girl magic, Williams completed her master’s while she was working as a special advisor and director of special projects to the U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues. “I was really interested in beginning a program that would allow me to build upon my undergraduate degree, love for politics, and allow me to continue working. I knew I needed to grow. The Political Management degree at GW was perfect,“...
Apr 17, 2020