Floyd Mayweather And MLK And Malcolm X?

Boxer Floyd Mayweather, Jr. recently compared himself to Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X (El Hajj Malik El-Shabazz). For real. Seriously.

John Freeman's Letter To Thomas Jefferson

An account of an 1804 letter written by John Freeman, a slave, to President Jefferson.

On The Relevance Of HBCUs

Consider this piece on historically black colleges and universities.

Who Has, And Who Does Not Have, Health Insurance

The Gallup Poll reports on the variability of health insurance coverage across population segments in the United States.

Renaming "Negrohead Mointain"

The mountain in California has been renamed Ballard Mountain after John Ballard, a former slave and blacksmith who purchased land on the mountain in 1880.

Sharpton vs. Smiley

Al Sharpton and Tavis Smiley recently had a fight over President Obama and the merits of the pursuit of a targeted agenda for and on behalf of persons who happen to be black. The audio can be heard here.

The "Compton Cookout"

The Koala, a student media organization at the University of California, San Diego, aired a TV episide making fun of reactions to a "Compton Cookout" fraternity party; parytgoers were asked to dress "ghetto" in commemoration of Black History Month.

Minorities In China

Check out this interesting story on the Dai people.

Mayor's Apology To Africville

The mayor of Halifax, Canada has apologized for the razing of Africville, a black community established by slaves fleeing the United States in the early 1800s. The community was destroyed in the 1960s to make way for a bridge.

This Is Definitely Not "Bipartisan"

Check out Rep. Anthony Weiner (D.-N.Y.) speaking on the floor of the House of Reepresentatives.

From "The Root"

"Black Folks We'd Like To Remove From Black History."

"The Blackest White Folks We Know."

4

The number of years that have passed since Justice Clarence Thomas last asked a question during an oral argument before the Supreme Court.

Question

Why are some self-anointed, self-appointed negrophiles also negrophobes?

Marlon Greene, Continental Airlines' Pilot

Continental Airlines has introduced a new Boeing 737 bearing the name of Marlon Greene, an experienced African-American pilot who Continental refused to hire many years ago because of his race. Green fought and ultimately beat Continental in court. Unfortunately, Green did not see the naming of the plane--he died last July at the age of 80.

(If you read the linked story, take a look at some of the comments.)

The British National Party: Blacks And Asians Can Now Join

The constitution of the British National Party has been changed. No more whites-only policy. Now persons who happen to be black and Asian can join. If they want to.

John Mayer Uses The N-Word

In a Playboy interview musician John Mayer used the n-word (comparing a "hood pass" and a "Nigger pass") and explained his "white supremacist" (his words, not mine) penis. An apology followed.

"My Race-Based Valentine"

Time magazine looks at race and those looking for love online.

Butchering "Lift Every Voice And Sing"

At the end of the White House Civil Rights Concert the black national anthem, James Weldon Johnson's "Lift Every Voice and Sing," was butchered by attendees who did not know the words of the song. What happened, and the lyrics of the song, can be read here.

The Congressional Black Caucus: Show Me The Money

This report examines the fundraising prowess of the CBC and monies received from major corporations.

Nelson Mandela

The life and career of Mandela are examined here.

Who Killed Apartheid In South Africa?

Check out this interview with Howard Barrell.

Michael Steele And The Race Card?

Republican National Committe chairman Michael "What Up?" Steele recently complained: "I don't see stories about the internal operations of the DNC that I see about this operation. Why? Is it because Michael Steele is the chairman, or is it because a black man is chairman?" (Love it when people go third person.)

Rush Limbaugh On The "Uppity" Obama (But Not Because He's Black)

Watch this.

The Eddie G. Robinson Museum

This museum honoring the renowned coach of the Grambling State University football team has opened.

Slideshow

On the unsung heroes of black history.

The 1955 Killing Of John Earl Reese

The FBI is investigating the 1955 murder of John Earl Reese, a black teenager, as part of its cold case initiative. Reese's death is one of 108 unsolved racially motivated homicides from the civil rights era.

Transracial Adoptions

Angie Chung discusses this subject in The Root.

Will White People Work In Factories?

Check out this answer from Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Farouk Shami: "You don't find white people who are willing to work in factories. And our history proves, you know, lots of itme when they, you know, the white people come to work in a factory they either want to be supervisors or they want to be, you know, paid more than the average person."

The New Yorker's Interactive Portfolio On The Civil Rights Era

This is definitely worth viewing and saving.

Obama Administration Proposes Increased Funding For HBCUs

The Obama administration's budget proposal for the fiscal year beginning October 1 proposes $279.9 million for historically black colleges and universities, an increase of $30 million over the fiscal 2010 proposal and $13 million more than what Congress appropriated last year.

Stanley Crouch Is A "Negro"

He explains why here.

"The Invisibility Of Whiteness"

Consider Brian Tamanaha's discussion of discrimination against Asian-Americans applying for admission to the nation's universities and colleges. "The only justification I can think of is this (put bluntly): America is a white society, so universities--the training ground for our next generation--must maintain a substantial white majority of students to properly acculturate our youth. If that's the explanation, universities should have the courage to state and defend it on these terms (which won't be easy)."

President Obama's "Balancing Act" On Race

Sheryl Gay Stolberg discusses what she describes as a "balancing act that has frustrated some black leaders and scholars, who are starting to challenge Mr. Obama's language and policies." She also notes that on Martin Luther King's birthday the President installed a signed copy of the Emancipation Proclamation in the Oval Office.

Pitts On The Paradox Of Black Sacrifice

Leonard Pitts writes:

"It is the enduring paradox of our centuries here.

"It is the paradox that stood its ground at Bunker Hill, paradox that made a doomed charge on Fort Wagner, paradox that stormed San Juan Hill, advanced through the Meuse-Argonne, landed on Iwo Jima, liberated Seoul, and was taken prisoner in Hanoi.

"It is the paradox: black men, will you defend America? Leave skin and blood in foreign lands fighting for ideals that do not include you?"

"Why Black Men Silently Suffer"

Watch this.

Recommended

Lawrence Lessig's Nation article "How to Get Our Democracy Back." From the article: Yet a year into the presidency of Barack Obama, it is already clear that this administration is an opportunity missed. Not because it is too conservative. Not because it is too liberal. But because it is too conventional. Obama has given up the rhetoric of his early campaign--a campaign that promised to 'challenge the broken system in Washington' and to 'fundamentally change the way Eashington works.' Indeed, 'fundamental change' is no longer even a hint."

On The Term "Negro"

Read Erin Kaplan's L.A. Times column.

SCOTUSblog's Black History Month Series

Sherrilyn Ifill's The Root column notes her surprise at the lack of diversity in SCOTUSblog's "Race and the Supreme Court" series. Of sixteen scheduled commentators, three are black men, none are Latino or Asian-American, and none are women of color. Arguing that "the decision to publish a nearly all-white lineup of scholars for its Black History Month program seems careless--or arrogant," Ifill lists by name scholars and litigators of color "who have important and compelling points to make about the role of the Supreme Court on race issues."

"Black Children Are An Endangered Species"

As reported in the NYT, that message, accompanied by a close-up picture of an African-American boy, is found on billboards erected by anti-abortion groups in Atlanta. A website states that Georgia's abortion clinics are in "urban areas where blacks reside" and links abortion and segregation.

New Orleans Elects Mayor Who Happens To Be White

Mitch Landrieu has been elected as New Orleans' first white mayor since 1978, the year his father Maurice Edwin "Moon" Landrieu left that office.

Millennials On Interracial Marriage, Friends

According to a Pew Research Center report, a large majority of millennials (18 to 29 year olds) support interracial marriage, and a majority say that some of their friends are of a different race.

Fried Chicken And Black History Month

A lunch special at the NBC commissary stated that in honor of Black history month the menu would include (as selected by chef Leslie Calhoun, who happens to be black) fried chicken, collard greens with smoked turkey, white rice, black-eyed peas, and other items. A picture of the menu was taken and tweeted by ?uestlove, drummer for the Roots. Moments later the menu vanished and NBC sent the following tweet: "The sign in the NBCU cafeteria has been removed. We apologize for anyone who was offended by it." Chef Calhoun was upset.

UPDATE: ?uestlove has stated that he thought that the sign was "funny" and "in No way did i ever think that this was some cruel insensitive joke on behalf of jef zucker and his comrades at nbc . . ."

The Greensboro Sit-Ins

February 1, 2010 marked the fiftieth anniversary of the day on which four black college students--Ezell Blair, Jr., David Richmond, Franklin McCain, and Joseph McNeill--sat down at a Woolworth lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina and requested service.

The NAACP's Congressional Legislative Report Card

The NAACP has issued its report on the 111th Congress. The report can be downloaded and you can click on the legislators from your state.

The Racial Slur Databse

A reminder of the Racial Slur database, currently listing 2,649 slurs and explanations thereof.

Sen. Harry Reid On Black History Month

Check it out here.

Recommended

David R. Dow, The Autobiography of an Execution (Twelve 2010). From pages 17-18: "If you have reservations about supporting a racist, classist, unprincipled regime, a regime where white skin is valued far more highly than dark, where prosecutors hide evidence and policemen routinely lie, where judges decide what justice requires by consulting the most recent Gallup poll, where rich people sometimes get away with murder and never end up on death row, then the death-penalty system we have here in America will embarrass you to no end."

Bob Herbert On Jim Crow Policing

From Bob Herbert's NYT column: "The New York City Police Department needs to be restrained. The nonstop humiliation of young black and Hispanic New Yorkers, including children, by police officers who feel no obligation to treat them fairly or with any respect at all is an abomination. That many of the officers in the mistreatment are black or Latino themselves is shameful."

Miss America

Congratulations to Caressa Cameron.

Klarman On The Supreme Court And African Americans

Michael Klarman, Harvard Law School professor, has posted this essay on SCOTUSblog in which he argues that the United States Supreme Court has more often than not been a regressive force on racial issues.

Black History Month: Pros And Cons

Boyce Watkins comments.

Are Black Folks Bad Tippers?

Consider this posting on The Grio.

"Martin Luther Coon?"

On Martin Luther King day Mike Greenberg, co-host of ESPN's "Mike and Mike in the Morning," appeared to say "Martin Luther Coon" instead of "Martin Luther King." Video and a statement from Greenberg can be found here.

South Carolina Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer

If you haven't heard about Lt. Gov. Bauer's statement about poor people, animals, and "breeding," read this Leonard Pitts column.

Chris Matthews Forgot Obama Was Black

That's what he said.

Ta-Nehisi Coates remarks that "Chris Matthews didn't forget Barack Obama was black. Chris Matthews forgot that Chris Matthews was white."

The All-White Basketball League

Can't make this stuff up. Watch this.

"I'm A Proud Racist"

So proclaims Santa Clarita, California Councilman Bob Kellar. And no faux apology for this guy--he says he doesn't regret spewing this filth.

Colorism

In the wake of Sen. Harry Reid's reference to President Obama as a "light-skinned" African-American, Shankar Vedantam reports on "colorism, an unconscious prejudice that isn't focused on a single group like blacks so much as on blackness itself. Our brains, shaped by culture and history, create intricate caste hierarchies that privilege those who are physically and culturally whiter and punish those who are darker." Vedantam notes an experiment conducted in the fall of 2008 in which persons were shown a political ad supporting Obama; one version of the ad showed a light-skinned black family, the other a dark-skinned black family. Those who viewed the ad were less inclined to vote for Obama after watching the dark-skinned family ad than were those who viewed the light-skinned family.

I previously wrote on colorism and employment discrimination in The Color Complex: Intraracial Discrimination in the Workplace, 46 Labor Law Journal 678 (1995).

The Doll Test

Remember Dr. Kenneth Clark's doll test initially conducted and used in the litigaiton of Brown v. Board of Education? For a film on a contemporary doll test, click here.

Pat Buchanan--Again

Pat Buchanan (MSNBC commentator!!) is back with his latest on "white America" and offers the following in explaining the "white surge to the GOP."

1. Sinking white support for President Obama resulting from the ongoing recession and loss of jobs.

2. The "growing perception that Obama is biased." (This from Buchanan.)

3. The "appointment of Puerto Rican American Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court."

Asking if there is "[a]ny wonder why all those tea-party and town-hall protests sem to be made up of angry white folks," Buchanan advises that the Republican Party should "start listening to these forgotten Americans."

Buchanan will probably be on "Morning Joe" or "Hardball" this week. I would send another e-mail in protest but I'm sure it would be ignored.

"Scott Brown's 'Negro' Dialect"

From "The Root."

The "White House Butler"

The headline of a Wall Street Journal editorial referred to former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Louis Butler, an Obama nominee for a Wisconsin federal judgeship who happens to be black, as the "White House Butler."

In a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story about the editorial, a Madison, Wisconsin attorney complained that "it is totally inappropriate to demean Judge Butler because of his race by comparing him to a butler, an occupation unfortunately stereotyped as predominantly African-American." A state representative said that the headline "harkens back to an antiquated stereotype," and a former state Supreme Court justice commented, "At the very least, it's highly insensitive. At the worst, it's racist."

From a Journal spokeswoman: "The headline was a play off of his last name, and to suggest anything otherwise is absurd."

Is Rep. Artur Davis A "Black Man"?

From The Hill: Representative Artur Davis, Democrat, candidate for governor of Alabama, and the only black member of Congress from that state, voted against the health care bill. Enter Jesse Jackson: "We even have blacks voting against the healthcare bill from Alabama. You can't vote against healthcare and call yourself a black man."

"Oprah's Blackest Moments"

Listed in The Root.

Racist Image Of Michelle Obama

I found this in a stack of materials I intended to post awhile back.

"The Jazz Baronesss"

Please check out HBO's documentary on Thelonious Monk and his relationship with Pannonica "Nica" Rothschild, a supporter of the New York jazz elite.

"Precious"

I still haven't seen the movie "Precious." Given the plot and subject matter, I'm anticipating that I will need a full day to watch and react to what I've been told by friends that I will see on the screen. According to Erin Kaplan, some who have seen the picture have applauded at the end of movie; one film critic has compared it to "Birth of a Nation" and called it a "Klansman's fantasy." I'll share my reactions if and when I head for the theater.

Must read: Melissa Harris-Lacewell on "Precious" and the tradition of pathologizing black motherhood.

College Degrees, Employment, And The Racial Gap

Michael Luo: ""[T]here is ample evidence that racial inequities remain when it comes to employment. Black joblessness has long far outstripped that of whites. And strikingly, the disparity for the first 10 months of this year [2009], as the recession has dragged on, has been even more pronounced for those with college degrees, compared with those without. Education, it seems, does not level the playing field--in fact, it appears to have made it more uneven."

Blow On Being Black In The Age Of Obama

Check out this recent NYT column by Charles Blow. A snippet: "Blacks are living a tale of two Americas--one of the ascension of the first black president with the cultural capital that accrues; the other of a collapsing quality of life and amplified racial tensions, while supporting a president who is loath to even acknowledge their pain, let alone commiserate in it." (The latter part of that statement strikes me as unfair to the President.)

(Some) Black Folks On Tiger Woods' Choice Of Women

Jesse Washington notes that "[w]hen three white women were said to be involved with Woods in addition to his blond, Swedish wife, blogs, airwaves and barbershops started humming, and Woods' already shaky standing among many blacks took a beating."

Woods "declines to call himself black, famously choosing the term 'Cablinasian' (Caucasian, black, Indian and Asian) to describe the racial mixture he inherited from his African-American father and Thai mother." According to Washington, a Pew poll "showed that 94 percent of blacks say it's all right for blacks and whites to date, but a study published this year in Sociological Quarterly showed that blacks are less likely to date outside their race than are other groups."

Who's White?

Gregory Rodriguez, writing in the L.A. Times: "The federal government (and the Census Bureau) likes to pretend it knows what white is, but not everyone agrees with its definitions. Now some Arab Americans are openly questioning its categories--and the meaning and cost of whiteness."