culture

From the Boston Herald: A Boston police officer allegedly sent a mass e-mail using a disgraceful racial slur in referring to Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., prompting the commissioner to move immediately to fire the cop, the Herald has learned. Officer Justin Barrett, 36, a two-year veteran assigned to District B-3, was placed…

Sometimes, we’ve gotta keep it light. A sample from the #HowBlackAreYou trending topic: soulrebelJ: I still call my little brother booky. @jenjanea: I love a fish fry, always lived in Black neighborhoods, don’t trust the po-po & am prob more educated than u @elonjames: I have a Pavlovian lyrical response to the phrase “Who the…

From NBC Washington: Members of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority are attempting to fire their national president, Barbara McKinzie, after McKinzie allegedly used sorority money to commission a $900,000 “living legacy wax figure” of herself. Sometimes, this stuff just writes itself. Eight Alpha Kappa Alpha members filed a lawsuit in the D.C. Superior Court on June…

From Al Jazeera: Nigerian troops and police are hunting for the remnants of Boko Haram, an Islamist group that went on a killing spree in the country’s north. At least 30 people were killed in fresh clashes between security forces and the group the northern state of Yobe on Wednesday, a police source said. “Thirty have…

Due to some “spirited” commentary, The Buzz is posting the longer version of the interview. We thought Powell’s critique of Dr. Gates was clear in the clip originally posted, but after hearing several whispers of conspiracy and collusion, it appears that was not the case. Below is the video in which Colin Powell further makes…

From NewsOne: The police commissioner promised a 12-year-old Dorchester girl hit in the leg from a stray bullet from an AK-47 last night that he’ll track down the thug responsible. “She’s not in any pain right now, but she’s clearly afraid,” said Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis after his visit to the girl’s house this…

It’s tempting to blame the victim. In May, a twentysomething French hacker broke into several Twitter employees’ e-mail accounts and stole a trove of meeting notes, strategy documents, and other confidential scribbles. The hacker eventually gave the stash to TechCrunch, which has since published notes from meetings in which Twitter execs discussed their very lofty…

“It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his two-ness,—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring…

From Al Jazeera: At least 85 people are missing in open water off the Turks and Caicos islands after a boat with up to 200 Haitian migrants on board capsized, killing at least two, the US coast guard has said.Authorities rescued 113 survivors from reefs about 3.7km southeast of West Caicos island after the boat sank late on Monday, Jennifer Johnson,…

From CNN: Judge Sonia Sotomayor passed preliminary confirmation by the senate judicial committee, 13-6. Sen. Lindsey Graham was the lone Republican ‘yea’ vote. Judge Sotomayor’s confirmation process now moves on to the Senate.