By Deputy Editor Thea Lim
So we’ve been getting lots of emails about this, both from readers and friends – in late February Zeta Tau Alpha , a predominantly white sorority, beat out three black sororities at the Sprite Step-Off, nabbing the $100,000 prize and honours as the best step team in the country.
This caused an [...]

By Guest Contributor Toban Black, originally published at Contexts.org
The 2010 Olympics logo is an altered version of traditional Arctic Inuit sculptures. This quasi-indigenous logo has been displayed in a barrage of Olympics branding. You can see two examples of this marketing in photos — from the summer of 2009 – shown below.
With this Olympics logo, [...]

By Guest Contributor invisiman52, originally published at Max Protect

(An African Methodist Episcopal Church and stop on the Underground Railroad)
On his blog at The New Republic,  John McWhorter argues that “African American” does not accurately describe the descendants of African slaves who live in the United States today.  He suggests that the term should be reserved [...]

by Latoya Peterson
These are the notes for “Gaming Masculinity: Video games as a reflection on masculinity in Computer Science and African American Culture.” The notes are from a paper by Betsy James DiSalvo, presented at the Texas A & M University Race and Ethnic Studies Institute’s Symposium exploring Race, Ethnicity and (New) Media.
The abstract to [...]

By Deputy Editor Thea Lim
From time to time, we at Racialicious discuss the stickiness of trying to talk about race in the context of cultures we are not familiar with.  It’s easy for us to talk about the U.S. and Canada, since members of our team live solely in these two countries. But when it [...]

by Guest Contributor Adam Mansbach, originally published at The Boston Globe

As John Mayer’s racially-charged comments in Playboy magazine ricocheted around the Internet this week, I found myself exhausted by the sad reality that the national dialogue on race remains driven by the engine of celebrity gaffes and gotcha moments.
Our voracious, ADHD-afflicted news cycle castigates, forgives, [...]

By Deputy Editor Thea Lim
I had a great time with this article sent to us by reader mra: Complex Magazine’s run-down of the 50 Most Racist Movies You Didn’t Know Were Racist.  The list spans not just time but also ethnocultural group – I was happy to see that Complex pounced on movies offending all [...]

by Special Correspondent Arturo R. García

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD
The die is cast early in My Name Is Khan, when the titular lead, Rizwan Khan (Shah Rukh Khan), having already been identified as autistic, is snarkily asked by a TSA agent what he has to tell the President.
“My name is Khan,” he answers. “And I am not [...]

By Guest Contributor Mimi Thi Nguyen, originally posted at Threadbared

I do mean to return to questions of vintage in the future –beyond that one great conversation I had with Minh-Ha– but I find right now I’m unable to devote much time or thought to its multidimensional, multifunctional phenomena. (More on my overstuffed schedule later.) However, [...]

By Guest Contributor Aymar Jean Christian, originally published at Televisual

Gawker has a post about the cancelation of Ugly Betty, lamenting the end of a “once-great” show that, they say, lost its punch and became de-camp’ed and Americanized as it progressed (Betty glammed up, became good at her job, got a promotion, a man, etc., American [...]

by Latoya Peterson

During the Saturday Snowpocalypse Two that hit the East Coast, I happened to catch VH1’s documentary “Soul Train: The Hippest Trip In America.”
The description on the VH1 site says:
Few television series were as innovative and influential as Soul Train. Set first in Chicago, and later in Los Angeles, the Soul Train [...]

By Special Correspondent Arturo R. García
In the wake of the Reggie Bush controversy and this month’s Vanity FAIL, it’s worth spreading the word that magazines like Giant Robot & Hyphen are still in need of aid in order to stay afloat. As Jessica Lum notes::
Many of the organizations that were started to reach out, broadcast, [...]

by Guest Contributor Tami, originally published at What Tami Said

A few months ago, “Need You Now” by the country group Lady Antebellum was among iTunes’ free downloads. I’m a curious music lover with eclectic tastes, so I snagged the song for my iPod. It was catchy and nice in the inoffensive and pop-y way of crossover country–think [...]

By Special Correspondent Arturo R. García

In reading the discussion about Morgan Freeman playing Nelson Mandela, it’s interesting to note that South African actors have been protesting the casting of Jennifer Hudson in the title role of a biopic on Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.
“This decision must be reversed. It must be stopped now,” Oupa Lebogo, the union’s secretary-general, [...]

By Special Correspondent Arturo R. García
For a review of Part 1, click here
No way around it: Latino In America was a failure.
At the very least, Thursday’s conclusion, “Chasing The Dream,” seemed equal parts melodrama and bait-and-switch, with the broadcast component weakened by a lack of questions that undercut even its’ more compelling segments.
For instance, [...]