Hosted by Special Correspondent Arturo R. García

What’s the bigger piece of sci-fi: that everybody on the planet can be knocked the you-know-what out at once, or that an imprecise recitation of Schroedinger’s Cat can work as a pick-up line?…
… No, really, let me know. If the latter is even close to plausible, I’ve still got [...]

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 Guest Contributor gwen, originally published at Sociological Images

In the early 1980s the Reagan Administration engaged in an active campaign to demonize welfare and welfare recipients. Those who received public assistance were depicted as lazy free-loaders who burdened good, hard-working taxpayers. Race and gender played major parts in this framing of public assistance: the image [...]

By Deputy Editor Thea Lim

I suppose it is a good sign that we can still be shocked speechless by the racism in pop culture, right? Because it means that we aren’t totally cynical and embittered. Right?
This morning we received a tip from reader Cassandra, letting us know about last night’s episode of America’s Next Top [...]

Hosted by Special Correspondent Arturo R. García

Two weeks without Heroes and yours truly still feels great. But as the Roundtable will explain, watching “Gimme Some Truth,” it’s becoming more apparent that Flash Forward is beating Heroes at some of its’ own strengths – even if Mark Bedford there looks like a bit of a weenie [...]

By Special Correspondent Arturo R. García

Note: Video contains one instance of NSFW language
This was noted in last week’s thread over Part 2 of CNN’s Latino In America, but it’s worth a bigger mention: it looks like the network is getting the wrong kind of attention for it, as Latino groups seized on the broadcast to [...]

By Guest Contributor Tami, originally posted at What Tami Said

Fat, black woman. Big, black chick. Those descriptors are lazy comedy shorthand in a racist, sexist and sizist society. Want to bring on the cheap laughs? Then trot out an over-sized, brown-skinned lady. Even better, despite her fatness and blackness, give her a more than healthy [...]

Hosted By Special Correspondent Arturo R. García

[Writer's note: What happened to Heroes, you ask? Stay tuned next week, True Believers. Now, let's roll with the new ...]
The most amazing thing about Flash Forward? Not the Blackout. Not the crows falling from the sky. Not the diverse array of visions being assembled in the Mosaic. Not [...]

by Guest Contributor Aymar Jean Christian, originally published at Televisual

When new technologies emerge a host of new companies tend to sprout up. Tons of independent radio stations catering to diverse interests before 1970s-style deregulation. Digital technology brought dozens of new channels to television; that same technology fostered numerous production companies making independent TV and films. [...]

By Special Correspondent Arturo R. García
SPOILER ALERT
There goes the neighborhood: for the first time in what feels like ages, three POC characters were directly involved in the key goings-on in Heroes – and all of them lived!
At the center of the big twist, including the salvaging of what Roundtable member x called the Claire Gone [...]

By Special Correspondent Arturo R. García
Public Enemy |Public Enemy Video |The Roots |Hip Hop
I watched the Hip-Hop Honors pay tribute to Def Jam Records for the same reason I bought the Def Jam anniversary box set: sometimes you just need some old school, right? Here’s some scattered thoughts:
* Tracy Morgan couldn’t have been less [...]

By Special Correspondent Arturo R. García

You know it’s sad when even the good episodes of Heroes spur a lukewarm response. Somewhat amazingly, there’s actually a campaign going to save the show from cancellation – no, really. More tellingly, even the little bits of good on the show don’t hold much water anymore, as we’ll see [...]

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 Special Correspondent Arturo R. García

Finally, Fuller, not filler.
Could you tell it was Bryan Fuller writing “Acceptance”? What was your first tip-off? The lack of boredom or the narratives that actually moved people along in recognizable characterization? It’s too soon to call this a turning point, but at least we got to jump into this [...]

By Special Correspondent Arturo R. García

“Ink”? The way this week’s episode slogged along, it was more like molasses.
The story, such as it was, mostly revolved around the Delusional Duo: Claire and Peter, who each found themselves being courted and, as usual, fell for it. In Claire’s case, not only did she tell the increasingly creepy [...]