By Deputy Editor Thea Lim
The Colbert Report is pretty hit and miss.  But most of the time I enjoy it.  Potentially that’s because Stephen Colbert’s satire is so impenetrable that I have little idea as to what his real politics are…which means I can just project my own politics onto him.  Jon Stewart on the [...]

by Latoya Peterson, published at Jezebel.com

On Monday, Madonna broke ground on a new school project in Malawi; today, she takes to the Huffington Post to ask for donations. Her megawatt star power helped engage media attention – but are high profile celebrities actually hurting progress?
In the new issue of Arise, reporter Hannah Pool examines the [...]

By Guest Contributor Jeremy R. Levine, originally published at Social Science Lite

In Black Identities, Harvard sociologist Mary Waters analyzes the racial and ethnic identities of first and second generation West Indian immigrants in New York City. At its core, Black Identities is a study of paradox. Waters eloquently states, “[For West Indians], America is a [...]

by Guest Contributor Minh-ha, originally published at Threadbared
While the much-ballyhooed Italian Vogue’s “All Black” issue last July 2008 was an overwhelming disappointment, it apparently succeeded in awakening the fashion industry to the fact that industries of beauty culture produce, circulate, and secure very limited ideas of beauty especially in relation to race and size. Unfortunately, [...]

By Deputy Editor Thea Lim
The Racialicious inbox has been flooded this week with emails about this race scandal from Australia:
A comedy act involving five men in afro wigs and black make-up on their faces during an Australian variety show has been criticised by Harry Connick Jr.
The US singer and actor, who was serving as a [...]

By Deputy Editor Thea Lim

It may very well be time we stopped giving Kanye West attention, but what do y’all think of this NSFW graphic from his blog, promoting his upcoming Fame Kills Tour with Lady Gaga?
Check it out after the jump…

By Guest Contributor Dumi Lewis, originally published at Uptown Notes

On Sunday night, Kanye West once again burst into the limelight with his interruption of Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at MTV’s video music awards. His interruption and hyperbolic declaration of Beyonce’s video as the best of the decade caused the twitterverse, facebook, and likely nights and [...]

by Guest Contributor Elisabeth Schäfer-Wünsche
We, Carolina and I, very much enjoyed reading Carmen Kerckhove’s inspiring comment on Michael Jackson and the contradictions of race. Here in Germany, most people are probably even more at a loss with Jackson’s constant re-making of himself than in the U.S. Comments range from questions such “Why did he turn [...]

by Guest Contributors Carolina Asuquo-Brown and Elisabeth Schäfer-Wünsche

Heidi Klum may have never exactly been a catwalk super model like fellow German Claudia Schiffer, but she is definitely one of the country’s most savvy business women and biggest advertising stars.
In Germany, Heidi’s face sells sweets, shoes, fast food and almost every other product you could come [...]

By Special Correspondent Thea Lim

What? More Mariah Carey?
Ok before Latoya starts to get angry letters saying that I am out of control and should not be allowed to write about Eminem and Mariah again, this one came by special request, straight from head office.
To recap, Eminem released the song Bagpipes from Baghdad about Mariah Carey, [...]

by Latoya Peterson

From the New York Times obituary:

E. Lynn Harris, whose novels about successful and glamorous black men with sexual identity conflicts (and the women and men who love them) made him one of the nation’s most popular writers, died in Los Angeles on Thursday. He was 54 and lived in Atlanta. [...]
Mr. Harris clearly [...]

by Latoya Peterson

E! news has the video, where Brown directly addresses the camera.

In the video, he mentions he has apologized to Rihanna “countless” times and wishes he could relive the events of the evening. He notes that he is still not permitted to go into what happened, but feels it is more [...]

by Guest Contributor Harry Allen, originally published at Media Assassin

Two-and-half weeks ago, actor Kirstie Alley, famed of ’80s TV sitcom Cheers, Jenny Craig weight loss ads, and sashaying in her hosiery on Oprah, told me, on Twitter, that African-Americans and Italians are “more free and fun and light hearted” than, I guess, people who aren’t [...]

by Guest Contributor (and regular commenter) Joseph Shahadi, originally published at Vs. The Pomegranate

Michael Jackson is dead.
My reaction is complicated. On Facebook my high school classmates and I are mourning Michael Jackson and sharing memories. Claudia wrote, “I remember when someone brought the Thriller video to school and there was a ‘viewing’ before 1st [...]

by Latoya Peterson
This morning, I was invited on The Takeaway to discuss Chris Brown. You can listen to the show here. Below is a quick summary:

Singer Chris Brown plead guilty yesterday to felony assault charges. Prosecutors say he badly beat his ex-girlfriend (pop star Rihanna Fenty) in February. Today on The Takeaway we [...]