Two Black Men Sue Apple Store For Racial Discrimination

Apple staff ‘told’ black men: your kind not welcome. Law suit’s racism claim against New York store employee is latest in spate of racism accusations

Apple has become embroiled in a racism scandal after a lawsuit was filed accusing an employee at the company's flagship Broadway store of telling two African-Americans their "kind" was not welcome.

The incident allegedly occurred on December 9 2010 when Nile Charles, 24, and Brian Johnston, 34, entered the Apple shop in Manhattan's Upper West Side at around 3.20pm. Dressed in "baggy jeans and large sweaters with hoods", the plaintiffs say they were looking to purchase headphones, but soon attracted the attention of an Apple staff member.

The unnamed employee – said to be white and in his fifties – allegedly approached the customers in an "intimidating fashion", invading their "personal space", and saying: "You know the deal. You know the deal."

Having been asked to leave the store unless they made a purchase or saw a Mac Specialist, Charles and Johnston were then supposedly told: "And before you say I'm racially discriminating against you, let me stop you. I am discriminating against you."

The employee continued: "I don't want your kind hanging out in the store."

The incident didn't end there, according to the lawsuit. Feeling "shocked and humiliated" by their treatment, the two customers began to use their mobile phones to record the conversation when a second Apple employee approached them.

"Now you have to go," one of the employees is accused of saying. "If you want to know why, it's because I said so. CONSIDER ME GOD. You have to go."

Demanding to see the store manager, Charles and Johnston's request is said to have been ignored. Having eventually found the manager of their own accord, the two men tried to make racial profiling allegations, only for the manager to ask the store's Head of Security to call the police.

The lawsuit, evidence of which appeared on the website Apple Insider, is currently working through the New York legal system. While the incident is yet to be substantiated – they remain allegations, nothing more – it is the latest in a growing number of racism accusations levelled at American Apple employees.

Last year Owen Stone, a black American who blogs under the pseudonym 'OhDoctah', set the blogosphere alight when he described an incident in which he claims he was accused of attempting to steal a MacBook Pro by staff in Apple's Santa Monica branch.

In June 2010, New York's Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said he was investigating claims by local politician Grace Meng that Apple's SoHo store was discriminating against Asian people by refusing to sell iPads without proof of American citizenship. Not yet released in Asia at the time, employees allegedly feared iPads would be bought in America and sold on the Asian black market.

Child Protection Services drops Mariah Carey case

The Child Protection Services investigation against Mariah Carey has been dropped.

The singer and husband Nick Cannon -- who became parents to son Moroccan Scott and daughter Monroe on April 30 -- were shocked when an anonymous tip to the Los Angeles Department of Children and Family (DCFS) accused her of putting the babies at risk by drinking alcohol and taking drugs in her hospital room.

Mariah -- who brought the babies home from hospital two weeks ago -- admitted to investigators she drank a Guinness but only on the advice of medical staff who informed her a dark beer would help with lactation.

Laura Wasser -- a lawyer for the singer -- was present during questioning before the DCFS decided not to pursue the matter, website TMZ reports.

Earlier this month, 'America's Got Talent' host Nick explained the couple were shocked at the "ridiculous" allegations.

He said: "Recently, the Child Protective Services were called with allegations that there was some drinking and drugs and all that going on, wild in the hospital, which makes no sense to me -- how would a hospital allow that?

"It all started when a nurse suggested to my wife that if you drink Guinness, the dark beer, the yeast improves breastfeeding. I don't know if someone heard that, but then they were saying my wife was drinking beer. People will do anything to try to conjure up a story.

"I spoke to the person from the Child Protective Services, I was like, 'This is ridiculous. We're going to make sure that this isn't a case.'

"To even have to deal with that, my wife in the state that she's in, we're in the hospital, to even have to think about someone possibly wanting to investigate your children. It's sad at the end of the day."

NAACP Tackles African American HIV/AIDS Crisis

The NAACP issues a call to action to the faith community to champion the importance of HIV testing and prevention in their respective congregations and communities.

"We need to acknowledge that, in America, health is a true civil right. It is essential that we enlist leaders from every corner of society to fight back against a disease that is devastating our community," said Benjamin Todd Jealous, President and CEO of the NAACP. "Normalizing the conversation about HIV/AIDS in our churches is critical to reducing the stigma, making testing a routine part of health care visits and ensuring those who test positive receive medical care earlier - all of which can curb the spread of this disease."

"Dialogue with the Black Church" is part of NAACP's ongoing two-year national initiative to address the disparate impact of HIV/AIDS in the African American community. The program will create a strategic roadmap for faith leaders to follow in helping to reduce the spread of HIV throughout his or her community. Key components include:

- In-depth assessments of the barriers and challenges faith leaders face in trying to effectively educate their congregations on HIV testing and prevention. Research to include interviews, surveys and focus groups among faith leaders in highly-impacted communities.

- Toolkits with practical, action-oriented steps, as well as best practices to shape services currently offered within communities as well as to serve as a springboard for those who may want to initiate these services.

- Personal accounts from community champions.

- Technical assistance to ensure local faith leaders can effectively implement the recommended strategies that are in line with their communities.

- New HIV-focused content and blogs on the NAACP website.

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), African Americans represent 13% of the U.S. population but account for more than half of all new HIV diagnoses. 1 in 30 Black women and 1 in 16 Black men will be infected with HIV in their lifetime. One in five HIV-positive Americans - close to a quarter of a million people - have yet to be diagnosed. Alarmingly, African Americans make up the majority of the undiagnosed. Evidence shows that individuals who are unaware of their HIV status are more likely to transmit HIV and less likely to access care and treatment that could improve their quality of life. Additionally, many are diagnosed late in the course of the disease when treatment is less effective. The CDC cite the reasons for the racial disparity as not just related to race, but rather to barriers faced by many African Americans. These barriers include poverty, access to healthcare, and the social stigma associated with HIV/AIDS.

The NAACP maintains a legacy of serving as a voice for persons unheard and underserved, and is therefore committed to its role as an agent of change in the domestic HIV/AIDS crisis. Faith leadership can play a critical role in changing the course of HIV/AIDS diverse communities, by reaching those who need a voice - those who are unaware of their status and those who do not think they are at risk.

Support for the initiative is provided by Gilead Sciences, Inc.

Exploring blacks' high rate of abortion

Among the most contentious issues in America today are race and abortion. Fuse them into a single issue and you've got a nuclear bomb.

And so, when a Texas minister last month posted pro-life billboards in African-American neighborhoods in Chicago, more than feathers were ruffled. With a picture of President Barack Obama, they proclaimed, "Every 21 minutes our next possible leader is aborted." It's part of a national campaign that warns, "Black children are an endangered species."

The campaign is designed to draw attention to the higher incidence of abortion among African-Americans. According to the Census Bureau, the rate of abortions in 2006 among black women was 50 per 1,000, compared with 14 for white women and 22 for "other" women. Those figures fairly reflect historical trends, although rates generally have declined somewhat over the years.

The rate of African-American abortions should trouble everyone and call for a calm, intelligent exploration of the causes. Not so was the response of the wedge-driving Planned Parenthood. It called the billboards an "offensive and condescending effort to stigmatize and shame African-American women while attempting to limit their ability to make private, personal medical decisions."

More thoughtful was the exploration of the issue by the Tribune's Dawn Turner Trice ("Debate over black abortion disparity," April 20, 2011), and although I'm neither black nor female, I hope to join the discussion. I'll start by saying that any implication that Planned Parenthood or other pro-choice people are waging racial cleansing against black Americans is goofy in the extreme. It's also counterproductive for activist champions of life in the womb to make the claim.

Trice's survey of experts reveals complex reasons for the higher rate among African-Americans: more unintended pregnancies, substandard health care, inadequate health insurance, ineffective use of contraceptives, poor sex education, higher rates of sexual violence and poverty. Combined, they all crush many into believing that abortion is their only choice.

Indisputable as these explanations are — and I agree with all of them — looking beyond them is necessary. And here we would wade into what sociologists call "multivariate analysis" of some other factors that are not so easily defined or as clearly measurable as demographics. Like culture, which is defined as the behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a particular social, ethnic or age group.

Political correctness and ideological dictates discourage discussion of the culture of some black communities as explanative of violence, ignorance, high rates of abortion and other dysfunctions. But for those communities, culture is described by the growth of a matriarchy, as displayed by the many grandmothers raising their daughters' children. By the absence of men in child rearing. By men who prey on young women who have never learned what to expect from decent, caring and responsible men. By the collapse of the family and the destruction of men's and women's traditional, balanced roles in making children strong enough to resist the challenges of today's broader culture of irresponsibility, casual sex, substance abuse and other plagues.

Unfortunately, such dire circumstances have encouraged the thinking that "some communities" are better off with fewer children. Such thinking is found in the writings of Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood and an icon of pro-choice activists. She advocated exclusionary immigration policies, sterilization of the severely mentally challenged, birth control to improve society and other policies characteristic of eugenics.

This lends a kernel of truth to the odious suggestion that abortion supporters are complicit in a conspiracy to kill off blacks. You might also get the idea from reading my mail every time I write about abortion. Claiming to be compassionate, the writers declare that some children are better off never being born. Especially if they are born into disintegrating or dysfunctional communities. Especially certain black communities.

The pro-life billboards, as "offensive" as some find them, force us to face an issue that many prefer to ignore: Is the high incidence of abortion in the black community a civil rights issue? Is it a symptom of control and suppression of women that is endemic to the community? And more profoundly: Who "deserves" to live and whether mass extermination of babies in the womb on a scale that is under way in the black community is good for anyone?

HIV/AIDS Now Leading Cause Of Death For Black Women Read more: http://www.thebostonchannel.com/health/28037669/detail.html#ixzz1OATkHIM9

ROXBURY, Mass. -- According to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, women now account for more than 1 in 4 of all new HIV/AIDS cases in the state.

Of them, more than half are African-American women, and black women are 38 times more likely to contract the disease than white women.

"It's certainly an epidemic," said Dr. Bela Bashar, clinical director of HIV services at The Dimock Center in Roxbury, Mass. "It is one of the leading causes of death in African-American women."

"I was in a steady relationship. We were using protection, and one day, in a heated discussion, you know, he yells out, 'That's why I'm HIV positive!'" said Chevelle, who wanted her last name withheld.

That bombshell shocked her system, and led to her own diagnosis.

"How long to do I have?" she had asked at the time. "Who's going to look after my kids? What are people going to think?"

Her diagnosis challenged what she thought she knew about the disease.

"It's not about drug use. It's not about risky behaviors," Chevelle said. "You can be, you know, thinking that you're doing everything safe, but you never know what the other partner is doing."

Her story is all to familiar to Bashar.

"Really a lot of women, African-American women, don't really know what their partners are doing or their partners are keeping certain aspects of their life shielded from their female partners," said Bashar.

So much so that it's now the No. 1 cause of infection among black women. According to the Health Department, 60 percent are unknowingly infected by their partners, boyfriends and husbands who either didn't know or didn't come clean about their HIV status.

"If a person who doesn't know they're infected, who is completely asymptomatic, which a lot of people are in the early stages of disease, they may go about with their regular behaviors," said Bashar. "They're putting tremendous amount of risk to the general public."

According to the Health Department, the leading cause of infection among white women is injection drug use.

To help increase HIV/AIDS awareness, The Dimock Center offers medical care, education, and rapid, confidential HIV testing, free of charge, to the community they serve.

Queen Latifah Launches New Clothing Line ‘Queen Collection’

Queen Latifah is branching out into the fashion industry - she's launching her own clothing line.
The actress and COVERGIRL spokesmodel has teamed with cable TV bosses at America's Home Shopping Network for The Queen Collection, a venture which includes clothes, handbags and other accessories.
Latifah says, "I wanted my collection to reflect my personal style while giving women the tools to build a wardrobe they can feel good in.
"I partnered with HSN because it's the ideal platform to share my story and the stories of women who inspired me. I hope to instill confidence in hundreds of thousands of women across the country."
But The Queen Collection is just the start of Latifah's fashion endeavours - she's also working on a range of clip-on hair extensions, which she will debut on the network in September, weeks after unveiling her clothing line on air.

Maternal Mortality (Death) Rates Are Increasing For American-American Women

Washington, DC (June 1, 2011) -- High rates of obesity, high blood pressure and inadequate prenatal care cause death from childbirth more often for African-Americans in the United States than for whites and other ethnic groups. Worsening this trend are the increasing numbers of cesarean sections nationally. These procedures can result in deadly complications for women dangerously overweight or suffering from hypertension or other ailments.

Nationally, blacks have a four-times greater risk of pregnancy-related death than whites - a rate of 36.1 per 100,000 live births compared with 9.6 for whites and 8.5 for Hispanics, according to a 2008 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

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Maternal mortality rates have been rising in the United States since the mid-1990s. In 1997, the black maternal mortality rate was 21.5 per 100,000 live births compared with 8.0 for Hispanics and 5.2 for whites, according to the CDC. The rate for other races was 8.8.

By 2007, the black maternal mortality rate had jumped to 28.4, roughly three times the rates among whites and Hispanics at 10.5 and 8.9 respectively. Statistics were not broken out for Asians/Pacific Islanders and Native Americans.

Trends show that black maternal mortality rates are increasing in some parts of the country, and two recent studies highlighting the problem have renewed calls for increased focus on reducing the deaths.

According to the new reports, the pregnancy-related mortality rate in some states rivals that in some developing nations. The problem is particularly acute in New York City, where blacks are nearly eight times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than whites, and in California where pregnant blacks are four times as likely to die from childbirth.

"The magnitude of this black-white gap in maternal mortality is the greatest among all health disparities . . . and that gap is growing. It's unacceptable," Michael Lu, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology and public health at UCLA and an expert in racial and socio-economic disparities in maternal and infant health, recently told PBS NewsHour.

The black-white gap also stubbornly persists for a variety of socio-economic reasons, including education and income levels, access to and quality of health care, and lifestyle and diet. Improved health care could reduce the maternal death rate by 40 percent to 50 percent, according to CDC estimates, but medical attention has been focused more often on reducing infant mortality during the past decades.

"When we look at some of the factors associated with maternal mortality, most of the underlying factors tend to be dominant in the African-American community, and it is manifested in the health disparities that affect our population," says Dr. Kerry M. Lewis, chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Howard University's College of Medicine and chief of the Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine.

Lewis, who specializes in high-risk pregnancies, says the mortality rate reflects lack of access to specialized health care that integrates comprehensive skills and technology. Too often, he says, patients are treated by family practitioners, nurse midwives, general obstetricians and gynecologists instead of specialists trained in high-risk pregnancies and medical problems that can cause complications during birth.

Obesity and hypertension are the major contributors to the black maternal mortality rate, leading to death from strokes, renal failure and other complications associated with obesity, Lewis says.

"We have to look at the reality of where we practice," he says. "Obesity is much greater among African-Americans. I deal with a gamut of high-risk problems, but complications from obesity are an underlying problem in all of them.

"Even young patients when they come in for prenatal visits have very elevated rates of high blood pressure. It really starts with obesity, so when they become pregnant, it places them at a higher risk for infections and other complications." To a lesser extent, sickle-cell disease, a genetic disorder more common in people of color, also causes complications, he says. Lewis, who also chairs the District of Columbia section of the American Congress of Obstetrics and Gynecology, says the increase in C-sections has compounded the problem because they can lead to hemorrhage, infections and pulmonary embolisms, or blood clots in the lungs. One-third of births in the United States are now by C-section compared with 20 percent a decade ago.

"Women who have C-sections have higher rates of complications and maternal mortality than with vaginal deliveries," Lewis says.

The California study bears this out. Of the 386 women who died in the state during childbirth in 2002 and 2003, it found, 65 had undergone C-sections "and most were unplanned or emergency surgeries to try and save the life of the mother or the infant." Additionally, more than one-third of the deaths "were determined to have had a good to strong chance of being prevented and some causes of death appeared to be more preventable than others."

The study also found that:

* Blacks in California had a four-times higher risk of maternal death and were more likely to have been overweight or obese and to have risk factors identified in the prenatal period.

* High rates of obesity or excessive gestational weight gain were contributing factors in one of four deaths.

* From 2006 to 2008, the black maternal mortality rate in the state was 46.1 deaths per 100,000 live births, compared with 12.8 for Hispanics, 12.4 for whites and 9.3 for Asians.

* Although blacks account for only 6 percent of California births, they represented 22 percent of pregnancy-related deaths in 2002 and 2003. Hispanics had the largest number of pregnancy-related deaths, 44 percent, and account for 51 percent of births statewide.

* Cardiomyopathy, or heart disease, was the leading cause of death for blacks with pregnancy-related deaths and accounted for 36 percent of the 22 deaths in that group and 62 percent of all deaths due to the disease.

* Thirty-one percent of mothers who died had not completed high school.


Conrad Chao, department chair and program director of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of California, San Francisco, who worked on the report, has said that he was surprised by "the magnitude of the disparity" and that the quality of care given these women needs further exploration.

The CDC issued a report in 2001 calling for comprehensive, broad-based public health surveillance of pregnancy-related deaths to identify factors, from pre-pregnancy through six weeks after birth, that affect a woman's chance of survival and that place minority and older women at increased risk of death. The report said surveillance must include reviewing the causes of deaths, analyzing the findings and coordinating action among public health agencies.

"Too often, surveillance stops after identifying and counting deaths," the report states. "With the resources available today, we should be able to eliminate this gap in such an important health outcome."

America's Wire is an independent, non-profit news service run by the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education. America's Wire is made possible by a grant from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. For more information, contact: Michael K. Frisby 202-625-4328.

The "N-Word": What's In A Name, Black America?

Nationwide (June 1, 2011) -- Whenever the "massa" gave the enslaved black man something, no matter what it was, he took it - whether voluntarily or by coercion. Sadly, no matter how demeaning or dreadful the thing may have been, he had no choice but to accept the token, allowing it to become a part of his identity.

For instance, the black man was given the name 'N**ger' by the massa. When asked: "What is your name?" He responded: "N**ger". "What? Say it loud so they all can hear you, what is your name?" "N**ger!!!" was the replied. And yet again he was asked, and he replied: "I am a N**GER." Finally, the white man said, "Right!! That's a good n**ger. Never ever forget - who and what you are - and your proper place."

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Today, as opposed to being ruthlessly, physically and emotionally beaten into submission and acceptance of the n-word by a brutal white social system, black people find themselves courted and conned by other blacks to voluntarily remain in their pre-appointed place of a n**ger/n**ga. In this contemporary era, White supremacy is most effective when it uses a black voice as a ventriloquist, and today, many rappers, comedians and black scholars validate the premise.

It is incredulous and appalling how some black scholars encourage their college students to greet each other as n**gas. An uninterrupted indoctrination process that began almost 400 years ago by a brutal racist social system is now carried on by cloned black representatives. The definition of self is only limited by who that person thinks they are, and far too many black scholars - who are, by definition of their roles, leaders and influencers in the community - have a diminished image of themselves and their race.

The American institutionalized systemic has always identified Black America with the n-word and, therefore, finds Black Americans' willingness to accept and relate to their pre-appointed place and category of being a n**ger/n**ga both gratifying and an ease on their guilty conscience.

So long as black people restrict themselves to saggin' pants, referring to one another as n**ger/n**ga, b*tches, mf's; and limiting their thinking to sex, cars, drugs, guns, sports and life in the hood, all is well in the American institutionalized systemic. However, a far more challenging and graver concern to the systemic are Black Americans retaking control of their minds, demonstrating the ability to think and act rationally, and possessing demeanors of royalty - walking with dignity; that who boldly declare their independence and rightfully return any unfitting or cursed gifts to the systemic - one primarily is being the n-word.

Black historians and scholars such as Dr. Asa Hilliard, Dr. John Henri Clarke, Dr. Chancellor Williams, Dr. Richard Williams, Kimani Nehusi, Dr. Kwaku Person-Lynn, Dr. Ray Higgins, Dr. David Pilgrim and a few others serve as examples of liberated, independent thinkers. As such, the American institutionalized systemic refrains from parading these gentlemen before a sound-asleep Black community in fear that the knowledge of these thinkers may awaken the slumbering masses.

However, they will parade and promote the likes of a Dr. David Bradley, Dr. Randall Kennedy, certain rappers, black comedians and some other hand-picked high profile blacks - all of whom are proponents of the n-word - before an unsuspecting and sleeping Black community. The systemic will and does make every effort to keep the sycophants - n-word supporting blacks - constantly before the public to trick blacks into remaining blinded to the truth even though they believe they are in control of their thoughts and aware of what's occurring.

The ravages of centuries of brutal mistreatment at the hands of whites through slavery, Jim Crow, segregation and lynch mobs still have a powerful psychological effect on black people to this very day. The intent and purpose of being categorized as the n-word was far more sinister than just a mundane racial insult.

The term was used as an identifier and a method of separating blacks from the remainder of the populous; it was used as a psychological conduit to breed thoughts of inferiority and, thus, no self-dignity, -pride, or –respect. The definition of a n**ger/n**ga painted blacks as sub-human, 3/5 a person, a bestial savage beast who needed to be tamed. The term was white America's way of not accepting blacks as their equal - but as a burden. And because blacks were considered non-human, and instead, animalistic, Whites believed that in the eyesight of God, classifying black ancestors as n**gers made it okay to dehumanize, brutalize and subject them to anything and everything ungodly.

The Holy Bible was interpreted in many self-justifiable ways to support White America's idea that blacks were a cursed race and that it was God's word that instructed them to "cleanse the world of impurities" by enslaving and dehumanizing them. They found it necessary to browbeat, brainwash and indoctrinate the black slaves into believing that they were indeed n**gers, and that whatever harm came to them was an act of God because they were nothing more than n**gers.

N**ger is an inferior category and place, reserved for those black folks who are gullible enough to accept the term. During slavery, our ancestors had no choice but to accept such categorization; today, their descendants have a choice but are timid about leaving their comfort zone, their pre-appointed place of being n**gers. So, what do they do? They dupe themselves into accepting the ghetto vernacular n**ga as some BS term of endearment. That action in itself basically safeguards White America's plight of destruction against the black community at the black community's own hand.

The embracing of the n-word serves as a sanctioning of all the evil deeds committed upon Black African Americans' beloved ancestry. This is not a consensus or opinion but a fact. Deliberate or not, it is sanctioning nonetheless. Such actions are neither magnanimous nor altruistic but indeed the opposite - malevolent, mean-spirited, self-centered and narrow-minded. Black ancestors deserve better - in the perspective of reverence and honor of their sacred and hallow memories. The n-word should be taboo and forbidden to be a part of the Black African-American culture.

There is nothing empowering about embracing the n-word; it has no benefit or value. Continually holding on to the name given blacks by a racist society through using, defending and supporting the use of the word, as well as trying to rationalize that it has been changed into something positive, is sheer insanity.

N**ga/n**ger is an empty sign of self-hatred masquerading itself as a term of endearment. The idiom serves as perpetual imprisonment and is the detonator to the absolute extermination of an entire race of people's pride, dignity, honor and state of mind. Some may feel that the term carries no weight and plays no role in the current status and eventual outcome of the black community.

However, the name "N**ga/n**ger" was always meant to demean and destruct. And as blacks continue to use the term, the community's ill-development will continue to occur. Words are a mighty source of power (Proverbs 23:7), and there is power - a negative, evil, conniving power - in the name "N**ga/n**ger".

Beyonce covers Essence magazine

Beyonce graces the July cover of Essence magazine, and in her self-penned feature she dishes on taking a break, celebrating the little things and new music.

Check out the highlights:

On taking a 9-month break:

"I had talked about taking a vacation before, but always ended up in the studio after two weeks, so no one believed me. This time, though, I was serious. I was going to give myself a year to do the things I never get to do. Simple things like play with my nephew, pick him up from school, visit museums, go to concerts, see some Broadway shows, learn to cook a meal and spend time with my husband... Yes, I needed some relaxation, but I wanted inspiration too, from regular everyday things..."

On new music:
"I feel like my job in the industry is to push the limits and I feel like I have to constantly evolve. I can never be safe... It’s hard to create a new-sounding up-tempo [song] that people are going to love, not only in America but around the world, or for different ages. One thing I’ve always stood for is making people feel good."

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Lady Gaga's Born This Way sells 1.1 million copies in first week

>The numbers are in for Lady Gaga's Born This Way, and the album broke records, selling 1.1 million copies in its first week.

Gaga's first-week numbers are the highest since 50 Cent released The Massacre in 2005. Additionally, Born This Way is only the 17th album to cross the "1 million copies in the first week" mark since SoundScan started keeping track in 1991.

Gaga also broke records on the digital front. Born This Way was downloaded 662,000 times, and now holds the record for most downloads of an album in a week.

With Gaga taking the #1 spot for the week, Brad Paisley's new release This Is Country Music came in at a distant #2 with 153,000 copies sold, and Adele's 21 was #3, selling 126,000 copies.

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