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DC Strip Club Built With HIV/AIDS Grant Money
A District of Columbia Superior Court jury found that nonprofit group Miracle Hands, Inc., misappropriated grant funds that were intended for a job-training center from the city’s HIV/AIDS program. After the four-day trial, the jury found that Miracle Hands and its executive director, Cornell Jones, owed a total of $329,653 in damages, according to Washington City…
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No, Rush Limbaugh, African-American Voters Aren’t ‘Uncle Toms’—We’re Just Smart
Let’s be clear: Whether or not he thought he was being funny, when Rush Limbaugh called out Mississippi’s black voters as “Uncle Toms for Thad,” it was an insult. Full stop. But what it also reveals, and sadly doesn’t come as much of a surprise at this point, is that the king of conservative talk…
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1994 Harvard Student: Nigeria’s Democratic President Was Overthrown. He Was My Dad. Here's Why the U.S. Did Nothing.
Hafsat Abiola was walking on campus one day in 1994 as a student at Harvard University when she was summoned by a group of students who were collecting signatures for a petition. “There’s an elected president in jail in Nigeria and we’re gathering signatures to demand his release,” one of them said to her.…
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Study: How Much Education Does It Take to Get a Job? Depends on Your Race
“Young African Americans need two more levels of education than their young white counterparts to have the same chance at employment” is the stark conclusion of a new study from Young Invincibles, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that focuses on young Americans. The study, “Closing the Race Gap” (pdf), confirms the timeless adage that as a black…
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Is Prince Rebranding Himself or Trolling Pop Culture?
This week Prince recorded a rap song featuring British artist Rita Ora (yes, the Rita Ora who dated Rob Kardashian). He also released a song titled “This Could Be Us” from his upcoming solo album, which will be released on Warner Bros. Records. The title is inspired by viral memes that depict two people in…
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The Central Park 5 Settled, but the Case of Racial Injustice in America Is Wide Open
New York City’s recently announced $40 million settlement with the five exonerated defendants in the infamous Central Park Five jogger-rape case appears to close the chapter on a painful historical episode. But in reality, both the injustice it represents, and the way race and class determine how the accused are treated, are very much open concerns.…
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Octavia Butler Fans Psyched Over 2 New Science Fiction Tales
For many years, one of the few African Americans publishing in fantasy and science fiction, and the first genre writer to be awarded a MacArthur “genius” grant, was Octavia E. Butler, a widely popular and highly acclaimed writer who died unexpectedly in 2006. This week, two of her unpublished stories are available in e-book form…
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Black Power in Brazil Means Natural Hair
Black power is big in Brazil. In the United States, black power is most associated with raised fists, social revolution and political demands. When Americans think “black power,” they generally think about the movement named and popularized in the 1960s by Southern Christian Leadership Conference founder and Black Panther Stokely Carmichael. The concept of black…
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Mississippi Appoints 1st Black Clerk of Highest Court
Mississippi Supreme Court Clerk Kathy Gillis has tapped Muriel B. Ellis to succeed her once she retires June 30, thus making Ellis the first African-American clerk of the Mississippi Supreme Court and Court of Appeals. “It will be an honor to serve as the clerk of the Supreme Court,” said the 53-year-old Ellis, Fox News…
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Paying Tribute to 3 Jazz Legends
On the occasion of the announcement of the 2015 class of NEA Jazz Masters—the nation’s highest honor for jazz artists—let’s take note of three recently departed NEA jazz masters: trumpeter Joe Wilder, singer Jimmy Scott and pianist-composer Horace Silver. Each of these soft-spoken, graceful men was a musical stylist of originality. Wilder carved a path…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
