Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts, Jr. tackles what he calls McDonald’s insulting budget advice, ostensibly aimed at helping minimum-wage workers, who have been fighting for higher pay. “If there is one thing poor people do not need, it is lessons in how to be poor,” he says. Perhaps you’ve heard of it. As fast food workers…

Jamilah Lemieux writes a compelling piece at Ebony that condemns and challenges the broad reach of white privilege. It was written in response to a white blogger who questioned the veracity of hip-hop artist Questlove’s moving Facebook post after George Zimmerman’s acquittal. “The funny thing about white privilege is that it knows no bounds,” Lemieux…

Since becoming Italy’s first black minister in April, Cecile Kyenge has had to put up with a welter of racist remarks from citizens and colleagues alike. The latest came on Friday when a heckler threw a banana at her while she was making a speech, Reuters reports. Integration Minister Cecile Kyenge, who is originally from…

President Barack Obama told the New York Times that he was worried that years of widening income inequality and the enduring effects of the financial crisis had torn the nation’s social fabric and undercut Americans’ faith in greater opportunity. Upward mobility, Mr. Obama said in a 40-minute interview with The New York Times, “was part and parcel…

CNN anchor Don Lemon on Saturday defended Fox News host Bill O’Reilly’s highly contentious remarks about crime in the African-American community and the disintegration of family. Lemon says the conservative pundit did not go far enough, which drew fire from critics on the left, according to the Raw Story. “In my estimation, he doesn’t go…

(The Root) — Many film fans were introduced to actress Adepero Oduye through the 2011 independent film Pariah. Playing lesbian teen Alike, the Nigerian American grappled with sexuality and Christianity in such an honest way that she earned a shout-out from multi-Academy Award winner Meryl Streep. Since then, Oduye has appeared in Lifetime’s Steel Magnolias…

Entertainment Weekly is reporting that 10 former American Idol contestants have filed a racial discrimination lawsuit against the show, claiming they were mistreated and unfairly disqualified from the competition due to their race. Each plaintiff seeks $25 million, minimum, in damages. Former American Idol contestant Corey Clark is suing Fox again… and this time, he’s not alone. EW…

The Ku Klux Klan has been distributing neighborhood-watch fliers in Springfield, Mo., in an effort to recruit potential members, according to KY3 News. Residents woke last week to find recruitment fliers from the Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in their yards, Salon reports. The flier, which features an array of bold text in different…

America’s food rhetoricians ignore what low-income African-American communities are already doing to gain access to healthier food choices, including cultivating urban farms, Erika Nicole Kendall writes at Salon. “When the grassroots efforts of hard working people have to be downplayed or outright ignored for you to make your point … it’s time to change your…