by Latoya Peterson

“S Africa Chinese ‘Become Black’”
I spotted this headline while surfing the BBC newsfeed last week – at the time, bloglines was behaving badly, so I didn’t have a chance to post about it.
No worries though – at least six of you sent me the tip, as well as the article in the Wall [...]

by Carmen Van Kerckhove
Addicted to Race Premium is the premium version of New Demographic’s podcast about America’s obsession with race.
Since this is the public RSS feed, you will receive just a 15-minute preview of the interview. If you’d like to hear the hour-long interview in its entirety, subscribe to Addicted to Race Premium today!
Here’s what [...]

by Latoya Peterson

So I noticed on this thread, a couple people are advocating for a colorblind society.
I can say definitively that working toward a colorblind society is not why Carmen and I post here, and not why we fight racism, and not why we host discussions. From where I sit, it isn’t our colors [...]

Two of Newark Four’s Convictions Tossed | RaceWire
Last week, an appeals court heard two of the women [of the New Jersey 4's] cases and they were tossed out.

by Carmen Van Kerckhove
AC360, Anderson Cooper’s blog on CNN.com, just published a piece I wrote for them yesterday in reaction to a recent poll in which only 3 out of 10 respondents admitted to “some feelings of racial prejudice.” Here’s an excerpt:
It has become increasingly fashionable to bandy about the words “post-racial” and “colorblind” when [...]

I remember when, the week before I left for college, my parents sat me down to tell me about the facts of life. The lecture wasn’t about sex — my father, a physician, was prone to oversharing the grosser aspects of human anatomy, so I was horrifyingly aware of the mechanical aspects of reproduction as [...]

Sequential Tart – Becoming Visible: On Being a Woman of Colour in Fandom
Fandom, by and large, tends to be a white space. And people of colour (PoC) are, by and large, good at negotiating white space. We have to be. We speak the lingo and know the canon, and we do such a good job [...]

by Special Correspondent Fatemeh Fakhraie

Last month, I went to the Portland Opera’s production of Aïda, which is shown as part of its “Great Women of the Stage” series. I had wanted to see Rodelinda and Carmen again, but I underestimated how popular the opera is in Portland and had missed out on tickets [...]

Hollow apologies
” Homophobic? I’m in Queens of the Stone Age for crissake…” More non-apologies. Interesting how they all follow the same format. -LDP
(tags: via:serenitynow78 language homophobia)

Muslim Americans rich in diversity | Freep.com | Detroit Free Press
“U.S. Muslims are a diverse, well-informed group; in fact, they are the most ethnically diverse Muslim population in the [...]

apophenia: feeding quasi-”legitimate” trolls in an attention economy
“In a world of blogging and pagerank, critiquing trolls gives them both literal and figurative capital. That’s frustrating as hell.”
(tags: blogging culture internet)

Rumors Barack Obama’s campaign shouldn’t try to correct. – By Christopher Beam – Slate Magazine
LOL! “Barack Obama is a PATRIOTIC AMERICAN. He has one HAND over [...]

by Latoya Peterson
The Father’s Day Speech

Average Bro checked out the full length speech on YouTube and came to the following conclusion:

I suspect many black male bloggers (I’m not doing any links, find them yourself) overreacted to perhaps the few soundbites of this speech that aired on the evening news without giving the entire YouTube recap [...]

The “adoptee perspective” – taking stands and choosing sides « Misplaced Baggage
“So what the hell are we talking about when we say, “adoptee perspective?” And why am I even thinking about this?”
(tags: race internationaladoption)

MotherJones Blog: The MoveOn Decision: Don’t Freak Out
“In that sense, this announcement was a formality, or a play for some positive press. [...]

Naomi Klein: What Does Obama’s ‘Love of Markets’ Mean for Our Economic Future? | Election 2008 | AlterNet
“Barack Obama waited just three days after Hillary Clinton pulled out of the race to declare, on CNBC, “Look. I am a pro-growth, free-market guy. I love the market.”
(tags: barackobama politics capitalism)

Memphis Police Officer Caught on Tape Beating [...]

by Latoya Peterson
Can anyone please tell me what the hell is going on over at MTV?
Their current show line up has me about to buy a damn TiVo so I can make sure not to miss a second of the ridiculousness.
Exiled

MTV
Music Videos
MTV Shows
Entertainment News

The show summary states:
Watching My Super Sweet 16 can give us a [...]

“I am for having women in the newsroom and minorities in the newsroom — I’m all for it. It opens up our eyes and gives us different perspectives. But just as well, let’s have people with military experience; let’s have people from all walks of life, people from the top-echelon schools but also people from [...]