-
Blacks and Hispanics 'Predisposed' to Crime: Really, Judge?
Edith Jones, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in Texas, is the target of an ethics complaint by civil rights groups who claim that she said in a speech at the University of Pennsylvania Law School that “racial groups like African Americans and Hispanics are predisposed to crime,” MSNBC…
-
Could Stop and Frisk Become Permanent?
(The Root) — While stop and frisk, the controversial practice of the New York City Police Department that has been proved to disproportionately target young black and Latino males, faces a serious court challenge, a new state law may render a court ruling to end the practice moot. The New York Senate has passed a…
-
Quote of the Day: Duke Ellington
Read the full quote here. Henry Louis Gates Jr. is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and the director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African-American Research at Harvard University. He is also the editor-in-chief of The Root. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.
-
Surprised About Black Twitter or Online Racism? You're Late
Noting the shock over racist reactions to the interracial Cheerios commercial, Ebony‘s Jamilah Lemieux says it seems as if “the Internet just met the Internet” in recent weeks. I’m not saying people shouldn’t take issue with the racist responses to what was a cute commercial for cereal; it’s certainly unfortunate that something so innocuous brings…
-
Jada Pinkett Smith Defends Beyoncé
Writing at Clutch magazine, Evette Dionne points out that the actress is standing in solidarity with her “unfairly criticized” peer Beyoncé against her body-shaming critics. Racist feminists are again critiquing Beyonce Knowles-Carter. Their latest argument is the 31-year-old’s wardrobe choices were inappropriate for the “Chime for Change,” a concert designed to raise funds to combat…
-
Michelle Obama's Transcendent Moment
(The Root) — If it’s been true in past elections that what the average Joe Voter really wants is to share a beer with the president, then perhaps getting into a bar fight with the first lady will be 2016’s litmus test. As it stands, reaction to first lady Michelle Obama’s swift handling of a…
-
Bye-Bye to Michele Bachmann's Twitter-Era Politics
Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page says goodbye and good riddance to the conservative Minnesota politician and her tactics. Rep. Michele Bachmann got it backwards in her surprising retirement announcement. Many of her “mainstream liberal media” critics will miss her, especially the fact-checkers. “I fully anticipate,” the Minnesota Republican declared in an eight-minute, 40-second, video, “the…
-
Americans Can't Agree on How to Say Anything: These Maps Prove It
Joshua Katz, a Ph.D. student in statistics at North Carolina State University, has published a group of maps illustrating a linguistic survey of how Americans in different regions pronounce words (and, sometimes, differences in the actual words we use). There’s the expected “pop”-versus-“soda” divide and big regional variations in words like “caramel,” “been” and “pajamas.”…
-
Donald Trump: Blame Brown People for Crime
(The Root) — If your timeline hasn’t met the quota for race-baiting, xenophobic tweets this week, it’s probably because you’re not following Donald Trump. On Tuesday night the mogul took to his Twitter feed to blame blacks and Latinos for nearly all the violent crime in New York City. “According to Bill O’Reilly,” tweeted Trump…
-
Multimillion-Dollar Mau Mau Settlement?
Decades after they suffered castration, rape and beating during a crackdown by British forces in Kenya, thousands of fighters from the Mau Mau movement who were tortured during the Kenyan “emergency” of 1952-1960 will finally be compensated, the Mail Online reports. Britain’s foreign office declined to comment on reports that the settlement — expected to…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
