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We don’t have all the details, but he was rushed to an L.A. hospital around noon today and was pronounced dead at the hospital at 1 PM.
He was 44 years old.
Heavy recently performed at the BET Awards in October
real name: Dwight Meyers
Elaine Riddick was 13 years old when she got pregnant after being raped by a neighbor in Winfall, N.C., in 1967. The state ordered that immediately after giving birth, she should be sterilized. Doctors cut and tied off her fallopian tubes.
“I have to carry these scars with me. I have to live with this for the rest of my life,” she said.
Riddick was never told what was happening. “Got to the hospital and they put me in a room and that’s all I remember, that’s all I remember,” she said. “When I woke up, I woke up with bandages on my stomach.”
Riddick’s records reveal that a five-person state eugenics board in Raleigh had approved a recommendation that she be sterilized. The records label Riddick as “feebleminded” and “promiscuous.” They said her schoolwork was poor and that she “does not get along well with others.”
“I was raped by a perpetrator [who was never charged] and then I was raped by the state of North Carolina. They took something from me both times,” she said. “The state of North Carolina, they took something so dearly from me, something that was God given.”
It wouldn’t be until Riddick was 19, married and wanting more children, that she’d learn she was incapable of having any more babies. A doctor in New York where she was living at the time told her that she’d been sterilized.
“Butchered. The doctor used that word… I didn’t understand what she meant when she said I had been butchered,” Riddick said.
North Carolina was one of 31 states to have a government run eugenics program. By the 1960s, tens of thousands of Americans were sterilized as a result of these programs.
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Eugenics was a scientific theory that grew in popularity during the 1920s. Eugenicists believed that poverty, promiscuity and alcoholism were traits that were inherited. To eliminate those society ills and improve society’s gene pool, proponents of the theory argued that those that exhibited the traits should be sterilized. Some of America’s wealthiest citizens of the time were eugenicists including Dr. Clarence Gamble of the Procter and Gamble fortune and James Hanes of the hosiery fortune. Hanes helped found the Human Betterment League which promoted the cause of eugenicists.
It began as a way to control welfare spending on poor white women and men, but over time, North Carolina shifted focus, targeting more women and more blacks than whites. A third of the sterilizations performed in North Carolina were done on girls under the age of 18. Some were as young as nine years old.
For the past eight years, North Carolina lawmakers have been working to find a way to compensate those involuntarily sterilized in the state between 1929 and 1974. During that time period, 7,600 people were sterilized in North Carolina. Of those who were sterilized, 85 percent of the victims were female and 40 percent were non-white.
“You can’t rewind a watch or rewrite history. You just have to go forward and that’s what we’re trying to do in North Carolina,” said Governor Beverly Perdue in an exclusive interview with NBC News.
While North Carolina’s eugenics board was disbanded in 1977, the law allowing involuntary sterilization wasn’t officially repealed until 2003. In 2002, the state issued an apology to those who had been sterilized, but the victims have yet to receive any financial compensation, medical care or counseling from the state. Since 2003, three task forces have been created to determine a way to compensate the victims. Officials estimate that as many as 2,000 victims are still alive.
Riddick was one of several victims to speak at a public hearing this summer. It was the first time that many survivors had told their stories publicly and that others heard of North Carolina’s tarnished past.
“To think about folks who went in…and their doctor told them this was birth control and they were sterilized…the folks who didn’t have the capacity to make the decisions, the uninformed consent,” said Perdue. “Those types of stories aren’t good for America and I can’t allow for this period in history to be forgotten, that’s why this work is important.”
Only 48 victims have been matched with their records, something necessary for them to eventually be compensated. State Representative Larry Womble has been advocating for the survivors of the state’s sterilization program for nearly 10 years. He helped fight for the repeal of the state’s law.
Womble said that if the government is “powerful enough to perpetrate this on this society, they ought to be responsible, step up to the plate and compensate.”
In August, a task force created by Gov. Perdue recommended that the victims be compensated, but they were unsure how much to award the victims. Previous numbers pondered range between $20,000 and $50,000. The task force also recommended mental health services for living victims and a traveling museum exhibit about North Carolina’s eugenics program.
Perdue said it’s a challenge to determine how much money each victim should be given.
“From my perspective, and as a woman, and as the governor of this state, this is not about the money. There isn’t enough money in the world to pay these people for what has been done to them, but money is part of the equation,” she said.
Riddick once sued North Carolina for a million dollars. Her case made it all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States, but the court declined to hear the case. “I would like for the state of North Carolina to right what they wronged with me,” she said.
Some victims and their advocates have questioned whether North Carolina is procrastinating in compensating them, hoping they’ll die before a solution is reached. “It’s an ugly chapter in North Carolina’s book, we have a wonderful book, but there’s an ugly chapter,” Womble said. “We must step up to the plate and we must realize and take responsibility.”
Perdue, for her part, said that she is committed to helping the victims.
“I want this solved on my watch. I want there to be completion. I want the whole discussion to end and there be action for these folks. There is nobody in North Carolina who is waiting for anybody to die,” Gov. Perdue said.
Despite the state social workers who declared Riddick was “mentally retarded” and “promiscuous”, she went to college and raised the son born moments before she was sterilized. Her son is devoted to his mother and a successful entrepreneur.
Elaine is proud of her achievements.
“I don’t know where I would be if I listened to the state of North Carolina,” she said.
*It was just a few years ago that media outlets had a field day when shocking photos of a man dressed in drag–allegedly boxing great Oscar De La Hoya—ignited international headlines.
The photos depicted a man in a hotel room sparring in a fishnet body suit, women’s panties, high heels and a brunette wig. At the time, De La Hoya vehemently denied that it was him in the photos.
But in a recent interview with Spanish-language Univision television, De La Hoya—nicknamed “The Golden Boy” who reportedly generated more money than any other boxer in the history of the sport, an estimated $696 million–admitted that he did actually pose for the photos.
The photos caused a sensation in 2007, when De La Hoya’s lawyers did damage control by arguing that it was not the boxing great but a “bad Photoshop job.”
“His head is too small and it doesn’t even look like his body,” his handlers argued.
But during the Univision interview, De La Hoya said, “Let me tell you, it was me. I’m tired of lying, lying to people, lying to myself.”
De La Hoya said he was snorting cocaine and guzzling booze when the revealing photos were snapped.
At the time, the very married De La Hoya was having an affair with stripper Milana Dravnel, who sold the photos to the press. De La Hoya’s lawyers claimed that Dravnel was “out for money”.
Dravnel filed a federal lawsuit against De La Hoya, claiming that De La Hoya’s handlers coerced her into agreeing that the photos were manipulated. The lawsuit was settled out of court, but courthouse sources revealed that De La Hoya shelled out a whopping $20 million to make Dravnel “go away.”
De La Hoya allegedly also ordered Dravnel to return the heels, fishnet and lingerie he had posed in during the infamous photo shoot.
During the Univision interview, an emotional De La Hoya revealed that he had been battling alcohol and drugs for years. “My drug of choice was cocaine and alcohol. Cocaine was recent. I depended more on the alcohol than the cocaine.”
He also admitted that he had “cheated” on his wife of 10 years.
“We are obviously not talking Tiger Woods here, but I was unfaithful,” he admitted.
The boxer said he had contemplated suicide after hitting rock bottom with alcohol and drugs.
The boxing champ, who admitted said he had started drinking at the age of 9, revealed that he was deeply affected when his mom, Cecelia, passed away from breast cancer in 1990. He added that drugs and alcohol helped him escape the pain of his mother’s death. “It (drugs and alcohol) took me to a place where I felt safe, it took me to a place where I felt as if nobody can say anything to me, it took me to a place where I can just reach out and grab my mom,” he told the Mail Online.
The controversial book seen around the world
The latest controversy burning up the Internet is the availability of Phillip Greaves’ book, The Pedophile’s Guide to Love & Pleasure, which he self-published and was available on Amazon. No, we are not making this up, and yes, you could have gotten it through your Kindle. Customers went crazy and threatened to boycott Amazon unless it removed the offering, which Amazon eventually did. The book is described as an “attempt to make pedophile situations safer for those juveniles … by establishing certain rules for these adults to follow,” which attracted more than 800 angry customer comments. After the book attracted those complaints and coverage in TechCrunch and all of the morning news shows, sales skyrocketed, until Amazon finally pulled the plug. According to Slate.com, the advice book was the 158,221st best-selling e-book on Amazon. After TechCrunch covered the book, it skyrocketed to 146th — “an increase of over 101,000 percent in less than a day,” Gawker’s Adrian Chen notes. It reached 65th place before Amazon pulled it from the site. Yikes! People are up in arms about the book and are questioning whether Amazon, which initially refused to pull the book, should have stricter guidelines for filtering what it sells. The bigger question to us is why so many copies have been sold. Forget Amazon — what does that say about us?
Amazon’s insanely popular e-reader, Kindle, has been a little more than popular…it’s SOLD OUT! The item selling out the way it has is unheard of, but consumer experts saw it coming. They said that the base level Kindle was dropped in price because they were making way for a new Kindle. And lo and behold, we are on the heels of the new Kindle DX. This one has a hefty price of $379, that the consumers may not mind purchasing either.
The Kindle’s original price was nearly $400 when it hit the market, but it has sunk as low as $189. The newer model will find its customer as well. It is obvious that money is no object when it comes to the device, but when they tell you it’s available you better hop on it or become one of the newest owners of the older model when it floods eBay, just like those users that have to unload their iPhones for the iPhone 4
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Who Gets Your Social Security When You Die?????
As the Sister Says, Wake up!!!!!!
—KEEP PASSING THIS AROUND UNTIL EVERY ONE HAS READ IT…..
… SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT….
THE ONLY THING WRONG WITH THIS CALCULATION IS THEY FORGOT TO FIGURE IN
THE PEOPLE WHO DIED BEFORE THEY COLLECTED THEIR SOCIAL SECURITY!!!!
WHERE DID THAT MONEY GO?????????????
This was sent to me, I am forwarding it because it does touch a nerve
in me. This is another example of what Rick Perry called
“TREASON in high places” !!! Get angry and pass this on!
Remember, not only did you contribute to Social Security but your
employer did too. It totaled 15% of your income before taxes. If you
averaged only $30K over your working life, that’s close to $220,500.
If you calculate the future value of $4,500 per year (yours & your
employer’s contribution) at a simple 5% (less than what the govt. pays
on the money that it borrows), after 49 years of working you’d have
$892,919.98.
If you took out only 3% per year, you’d receive $26,787.60 per year and
it would last better than 30 years (until you’re 95 if you retire at
age 65) and that’s with no interest paid on that final amount on
deposit! If you bought an annuity and it paid 4% per year, you’d have a
lifetime income of $2,976.40 per month.
The folks in Washington have pulled off a bigger Ponzi scheme than
Bernie Madhoff ever had.
Entitlement my ass, I paid cash for my social security insurance!!!!
Just because they borrowed the money, doesn’t make my benefits some
kind of charity or handout!!
Congressional benefits —- free healthcare, outrageous retirement
packages, 67 paid holidays, three weeks paid vacation, unlimited paid
sick days, now that’s welfare, and they have the nerve to call my
social security retirement entitlements?
We’re “broke” and can’t help our own Seniors, Veterans, Orphans,
Homeless
In the last months we have provided aid to Haiti, Chile , and Turkey, Japan,
And now Pakistan ……home of bin Laden. Literally, BILLIONS of
DOLLARS!!!
Our retired seniors living on a ‘fixed income’ receive no aid nor do
they get any breaks while our government and religious organizations
pour Hundreds of Billions of $$$$$$’s and Tons of Food to Foreign
Countries!
They call Social Security and Medicare an entitlement even though most
of us have been paying for it all our working lives and now when it’s
time for us to collect, the government is running out of money. Why did
the government borrow from it in the first place? Imagine if the
*GOVERNMENT* gave ‘US’ the same support they give to other countries.
Sad isn’t it?