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Michael Baisden's Co-Host Victim of Racism
A Chicago couple refused to sell their home for $1.7 million — the highest offer they had received in two years — because the potential buyer, comedian George Wilbon, is black. The couple, Daniel and Adrienne Sabbia, and Jeffrey Lowe, their real estate agent, will be charged with violation of the Fair Housing Act. After…
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Guess Who Bears the Brunt of the 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Policy?
In 2009 the military dismissed 428 service members for violating its “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. A disproportionate number of those thrown out were women and minorities. Dozens also worked in “mission critical” positions, according to a new analysis of military data. The previous year, 619 service members were discharged for violating the policy. Read…
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Survey: One in Five Americans Believes Obama Is a Muslim
One in five Americans believes, wrongly, that President Obama is a Muslim. The results come from a new Pew Research Center survey completed prior to the president’s comments about the construction of an Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero. As the debate rages on, the survey result suggests that political fallout from the controversy over…
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Can Usain Bolt Cross the Big-Money Finish Line?
Usain Bolt may be the world’s fastest man, but so far he hasn’t sped to the $10 million annual income that his agent envisioned in 2008. That year Bolt set records in the 100 meters (9.69 seconds), 200 (19.30) and 4-by-100 meter relay (37.10 seconds) at the Beijing Olympics. Afterward, his agent, Ricky Simms, touted…
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Best Black Businesses in the Wine Industry
The Wine Institute says that 90 percent of American wine comes from California’s nearly 2,900 wineries and 4,600 grape wine growers. The Association of African American Vintners has seven members, and there are several other black winemakers, also covered in this photo slide show, who aren’t members. Black-owned restaurants, and wine bars that carry the…
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Jazzonomics
In the mid-1890s and early 19th century, few of New Orleans’ earliest jazz musicians could afford to play their instruments full-time. So the artists practiced after work, played weekends and tried to answer the eternal musical question: How well can you play? For a few, the music they loved was transformed from a hobby into…
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An Earth Day Fix for Urban Food Deserts
Rewind: In April 2010, we examined the “guerrilla tactics” of black organic farmers looking to combat food deserts in urban areas. “Usilima hua huli.” (If you don’t farm, you are not eating.)—Bena (Tanzania) Proverb Veronica Kyle of Chicago is not happy, but she is hopeful. Her upset stems from knowing that too many blacks and…
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In Appreciation of J. Bruce Llewellyn (1927-2010)
J. Bruce Llewellyn, who died on April 8 at age 82, was a bustling lion of a man, with a shock of white hair and matching goatee. Throughout his 50-year career as a serial entrepreneur he was always prepared to pounce on a deal. The son of Jamaican immigrants rose from running a Harlem liquor…
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Jobs Vanish for African Americans
As the Great Recession’s scythe slices through industries, states, cities and neighborhoods, African Americans have received the most devastating wound. Blacks, and particularly African-American males, have suffered disproportionate rates of unemployment and underemployment historically, for reasons that include weaker educational attainment, lack of connections, less mobility, a high percentage of workers in blue-collar jobs and…
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Don’t Play for a Pro Team. Own One.
Michael Jordan, pro basketball’s greatest player, and a lackluster executive for two franchises, once said in a Nike commercial, “I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” He got another chance when his bid for the NBA’s Charlotte Bobcats was accepted. Although, how much he paid…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
