The Life of Films: Black People Watched “Traitor”! Sophisticated Urbanites Heart “Milk”!

By Guest Contributor AJ Christian, originally published at Televisual

The New York Times has an interesting interactive feature out that maps the top 50 rentals for 2009 based on the Netflix queues from a dozen US cities: New York, Boston, Chicago, Washington, Milwaukee, Dallas, Miami, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Altanta, Seattle and Denver. The list is [...]

Shopping with Squaws: Irregular Choice Gives Itself a Bad Name

by Special Correspondent Wendi Muse
I have to give companies credit for coming up with unusual names for the merchandise. One such company that comes to mind is Irregular Choice, a flamboyant Britain-based shoe company who goes all out to wow consumers. With asymmetrical heels, bizarre accessories, and designs that stop traffic, Irregular Choice is the [...]

Crack and Hip Hop Politically Underdeveloped Young People

by Guest Contributor M.Dot, originally published at Model Minority

On a fluke a few of weeks ago, I picked up a dvd about the Black Panthers and the student and employee strike at SF State that created the first Black Studies department in the country.
It was in watching this video that realized that both crack and [...]

Mattel Falls Short With S.I.S (So In Style) Line Black Barbies

by Guest Contributor Seattle Slim, originally published at Happy Nappy Head

While checking out Bossip, I saw a link to an article at HipHopWired about Mattel’s new line of black Barbies, S.I.S or So InStyle.
You already know I was hesitant to get my hopes up, and that hesitation was warranted.
I am not one to complain about [...]

Tickle Me Elmo and the Gangster Meme

by Guest Contributor Lisa, originally published at Sociological Images
Nikki L. sent us a link to this fascinating Tickle Me Elmo commercial.  In introduces a new Tickle Me Elmo product, “Tickle Hands.”
The ad takes place on what appears to be an urban street (reminiscent of Sesame Street).  Two of the kids appear white, while the other [...]

Freaking love this target commercial

by Guest Contributor Angry Asian Man, originally published at Angry Asian Man

Spotted this awesome Target commercial on the tube last week and absolutely fell in love with it. I just watched the 30-second spot like five times in a row. It features Shannon, a Cool Asian Mom doing all sorts of Cool Asian Mom stuff [...]

Women of Color Marketing Panel at Blog Her

by Guest Contributor Jasmine D, originally published at This is Jasmine

This was my first BlogHer conference and I’ve been telling folks it won’t be my last. I was lucky to have my friend Liz show me around and introduce me to, like, everybody. One of the folks I met through Liz was Megan Smith, who [...]

The Pop Culture Jump-Off: Notes from the 2009 Comic-Con

By Special Correspondent Arturo R. García, originally published at Arturo vs. The World

You can trace the story of this year’s Comic-Con with a line. Not a straight line, necessarily, but one that wound all over the building at various points all day all four days. If you were at Con, it’s almost a given [...]

The Brazil Files: Paper, Plastic, or Racist Caricatures?

by Special Correspondent Wendi Muse
I go grocery shopping almost every day here in Brazil, but I rarely really study the packaging of the products I buy beyond checking out the price and the contents. However, a few weeks ago, while sitting down to remove my nail polish, I noticed that a grocery store purchase yielded [...]

How to market a black man without being racist: America, we’ll get there

By Guest Contributor The Elahater, originally published at hate on me
So for about the 467th time since November, I heard news once again that some company was marketing a product or doing something that is racially insensitive when trying to capitalize on the election of Barack Obama as president. Cause it’s happened before. Yea, [...]

The CW and the White Girls

By Guest Contributor Melissa Silverstein, orignally published at Women and Hollywood
The CW is a combination of the old WB and UPN. It’s a couple of years old and is jointly owned by CBS and Warner Brothers. If you were familiar with UPN you will know that a lot of their shows [...]

The Brazil Files: Without Limits

by Special Correspondent Wendi Muse
Tim, a Brazilian digital communications provider (cell phones, internet service, etc), recently launched an ad campaign entitled “Você, Sem Fronteiras,” which means “You, Without Limits.” “Fronteiras” is a Portuguese word* that means limits, borders, or restrictions, and is often evoked in reference to behavior, culture, and access to resources. In this [...]

Slanties Eyewear?

by Latoya Peterson

Am I the only one thinking this couldn’t possibly end well?
Here is the product’s description:

slanties are based on ancient Inuit eyewear. Each pair of slanties is handcrafted. Our light, durable finish shows off the natural wood grain. slanties are engineered to be sturdy and reliable, and each pair is reinforced with a layer [...]

If You Buy Becks Modeling Clay, We Can End Racial Strife!

by Latoya Peterson
Or not.

I get what they’re going for, but I must admit my first thought was “So now there will be a serving of love with our racial terrorism?”
They also put together this ad:

Thoughts?
(Thanks to Copyranter – who termed it KKKlay-Doh – and tartedelune for the tip!)

Tricia Rose on The Hip-Hop Wars, Race, and Culture – Part 2

by Latoya Peterson
(Continued from Part 1)
LP: [We should] think some more about this formula, because it seems to me that with every year that passes, the formula gets whittled down into the need to find the next hit. Catchy hooks, lyrics, whatever – they just want a hit. And it appears [...]