The Huffington Post is reporting that the Center for the Education of Women at the University of Michigan has rescinded an invitation to Alice Walker to attend its 50th anniversary next year. Officials may have been prompted by her past criticism of Israel, says the Pulitizer Prize-winning author. On her blog, Walker posted a letter she said…

In his first sit-down interview about the “Harriet Tubman Sex Tape” debacle, Russell Simmons tells BRKDWN host Cynthia LuCiette that he pulled the video after black women schooled him on how much pain it caused. “This is about black women — and they can push me around a little quicker than the rest of the…

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg took the airwaves on Friday to blast a Manhattan federal judge who ruled that the city’s controversial stop-and-frisk practices were unconstitutional, according to the New York Post. Public safety “is now in the hands of some woman who does not have the expertise to do it,” he told listeners during…

Mother Jones reports that 58-year-old “Ms. Ruth,” who comes from five generations of Ku Klux Klan members, sews hoods and robes for the group seven days a week, and blesses each one when it’s done. She lives in the Deep South. A red satin outfit for an Exalted Cyclops, the head of a local chapter,…

Forty-three-year-old Carlos Alcis’ family says he was literally scared to death when New York City police officers entered his home chasing a cellphone thief, the Daily News reports. The Brooklyn district attorney’s office on Friday announced an investigation into the incident, which occurred Thursday. Word of the DA’s probe emerged Friday just before police arrested…

Lee Daniels’ The Butler defied expectations this weekend as it became the No. 1 film at the box office, Deadline Hollywood reports. Universal’s Kick Ass 2 was on track to be the top ticket-seller. Tracking showed Universal’s Kick Ass 2 (playing in 2,940 theaters) would be the #1 film this weekend. In fact Lee Daniels‘ The Butler (2,933 theaters) from The Weinstein…

Dave Chappelle officially returns to stand-up comedy next week at the Oddball Comedy and Curiosity Festival in Austin, Texas, in a new 15-city tour presented by the Funny or Die website, the New York Times reports. And he’s got jokes. Mr. Chappelle didn’t just walk away from a $50 million contract [in 2005] and the…

Philadelphia’s public schools will open on time in September after city officials Thursday announced plans to borrow $50 million, the New York Times reports. On Sept. 9, schools will open with minimum staffing and greatly reduced extracurricular activities and other programs. Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. had been threatening to delay opening schools if the city…

U.S. Rep. Steve Stockman (R.-Texas) said it’s “silly” for the Missouri chapter of the NAACP to call for a federal probe into an incident involving a man who wore a mask of President Barack Obama during a controversial performance last weekend at the state fair, Fox News reports. “A rodeo clown is really a nominal…

The strain of poverty is traumatizing enough, but the scars can be lasting and even deadly when it occurs early in life, the Huffington Post reports. Whites in the U.S. live about five years longer than blacks because of socioeconomic factors, not genetics, the report shows. And the stress elevates levels of stress hormones and…