-
What Happened to VH1?
If you haven’t watched VH1 in the last five years, you will be in for a major shock. Not only is the channel radically different — it is looking more like BET of old than MTV — but the network introduced to offer grown folks an alternative to MTV seems to have disappeared into thin air.…
-
'N–ger Cake' Creator Is Black; So What?
The controversy over the “n—ger cake” put on display in Sweden as part of a World Art Day celebration has continued. Since the mass circulation of the images and videos of the celebration, much more information has surfaced about the cake and the artist — a black artist named Makode Aj Linde, whose art interrogates…
-
'N–ger Cake' Flap: Hottentot Venus 2.0
Folks are getting really comfortable with their blatant racism and sexism. A friend of mine emailed me a story about how Swedish Minister of Culture Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth, a self-proclaimed “anti-racist,” was photographed eating a cake made in the image of an African woman in minstrel makeup. According to an article in Fria Tider (a…
-
Free Speech Isn't Always Free
My mother often says, “Free speech isn’t always free.” One doesn’t have to look very far for real-world examples of people being made to pay for uttering, tweeting or writing words that don’t sit well with various communities. The National Review fired two writers within a week for making racially inflammatory comments. The conservative publication…
-
Tulsa Shootings and the Color of Hate
The fallout over the killing of three black people in Tulsa, Okla., continues after the arrest of two “white” men, Jacob England, 19, and Alvin Watts, 32, both of whom reportedly confessed to the shooting spree, which occurred in a predominantly black neighborhood. On April 5, England, who is half Cherokee, posted comments on his…
-
Nicki Minaj: More Hype Than Happening?
You would have to live under a rock not to know that Nicki Minaj’s second album, Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded, dropped this week. You may have seen the television ads for Reloaded that proclaim Minaj to be the greatest female rapper in history. You might have heard Minaj discussing on Power 105.1’s The Breakfast Club,…
-
When Rick Santorum Goes Wrong
A storm is brewing around a YouTube video of GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum uttering yet another gaffe while speaking to a crowd of supporters in Janesville, Wis., on March 27. In the midst of lambasting President Barack Obama, Santorum stumbles over his words, and it sounds like he almost utters the unthinkable. “We know…
-
Where's the Mother? Where's the Justice?
The gruesome gang rape of an 11-year-old girl in Cleveland, Texas, that made national headlines last March is back in the news again, reigniting debates about the role of sexism in sex crimes against girls and women. You may recall the case in which 18 black men between the ages of 14 and 27 were arrested…
-
Racism: Realer Than Fiction
(Editor’s Note: The racial background of Amandla Stenberg has been corrected.) Is this Heimdall 2.0? Remember when white supremacists boycotted the casting of Idris Alba as a Norse god in the film Thor? Elba’s selection as comic book character Heimdall was met by opposition from so-called purists — who can manage to wrap their tiny…
-
The Assassination of Trayvon's Character
Last month I wrote an article about the demonization of black men and was called everything but a child of God for my observation that our society is all too willing to demonize and vilify black men in a way that satisfies the dominant narrative of no-good black men circulating throughout our society. Perhaps folks…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
