culture

Don’t call her African-American; she’s been Black for years. The Buzz’s Take: Maintaining messenger status, The Buzz is certainly more interested in your thoughts on what’s going on throughout the Black blogosphere and letting you all hash it out. We are children of a diaspora, but that doesn’t mean we must submit ourselves to group…

“One death is a tragedy; one million is a statistic.” —Josef Stalin As more bilking billionaires and the Ponzi schemes that loved them come to light, The Buzz can’t help but feel like these gentlemen, like many of the wealthy and well-heeled, are not going to get their just desserts. They may get desserts, but it…

Well, there is nothing to be done now. Academy voters have made their selections and with some exceptions, they represent the ho-hum, narrow reality of said voters. Yes, Slumdog Millionaire is included in the Best Picture category (but, like the new administration, it might be a tad overhyped). And they got it all right in…

The New York Times: Let’s just hope she paid her taxes. The San Francisco Chronicle: If only Arnold could send someone back in time to fix all this. Wait… The Washington Post: And in other news, water is still wet. CNN: In case you’re wondering, the Attorney General just ethered the United States. And he…

The New York Post’s Wednesday cartoon depicting two police officers shooting and killing a chimpanzee, purportedly parodying the Monday police shooting of a pet chimpanzee in Stamford, Connecticut after it mauled a friend of its owner, with the caption, “They’ll have to find someone to write the next stimulus bill,” has been challenged by Rev.…

The article, for your perusing and pondering pleasure. The Buzz’s Final Thought: Michael Vick willfully broke the law and paid the price for doing so. Having paid his debt, he should be allowed to live his life as a man who once broke the law and is (hopefully) attempting to rehabilitate his life following a series…

As the banks, the car manufacturers and the other birds of the nest strain for their morsel of the stimulus package, The Buzz can’t help but wonder about the basics of business and the spirit of a capitalist economic system. Let’s, for a moment, deliberately oversimplify capitalism for the purpose of argument. The capitalist foundation in America, in its…

USA Today: Say what you will, but the man does not waste time. The New York Times: It’s no Purple City Byrd Gang, but it will do. The LA Times: The truth? You can’t handle the truth! The Chicago Tribune: The last name Burris is having a rough couple of months. Check out our take…

The week that Barack Obama was sworn in as the nation’s first black president, the talented Robert Downey Jr. received an Oscar nomination for his role in the late-summer flick Tropic Thunder. The honored performance involved a character in blackface and an Afro wig; the role, a brilliant showcase for the actor’s “Ebonics vocal training.”…

Sometimes it’s a turn of phrase. A gesture. A look that makes a role memorable. African American actresses have built careers; gone from the bottom of the credits roster to headlining blockbusters because of their ability to turn a small part (3 minutes of screen time or less) into a door opening opportunity. Remember for instance,…