Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Monday, August 15, 2011

Cornel West and Tavis Smiley Talk Poverty in DC

tavis smiley, cornel west, poverty tour

by Kirsten West-Savali, Your Black World

Tavis Smiley and Dr. Cornel West continue to draw fire from critics for their Poverty Tour, which many consider a personal attack against President Barack Obama and his loud silence on poverty in the United States.

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Friday, August 12, 2011

Duchess Harris: Kathryn Stockett Is Not My Sister and I Am Not Her Help

the help, duchess harris, black women, black scholars

by Professor Duchess Harris, PhD, JD

I did not attend Wednesday’s movie release of “The Help” from DreamWorks Pictures, based on the New York Times best-selling novel by Kathryn Stockett.  Why, you ask? Because I read the book.

Last week New York Times op-ed columnist Frank Bruni saw an advance screening of the movie and referred to it as  “…a story of female grit and solidarity — of strength through sisterhood.”  He wrote, “The book’s author, Kathryn Stockett, told me that she felt that most civil rights literature had taken a male perspective, leaving ‘territory that hadn’t been covered much.’” What neither Bruni nor Stockett acknowledge is that the real territory remaining uncovered is civil rights literature written by the Black women who experienced it.

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Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Steve Harvey Calls Tavis Smiley and Cornel West Uncle Toms

steve harvey, tavis smiley, cornel west, uncle toms

Dr. Boyce: It seems that Steve has a lot to say about Tavis Smiley and Cornel West.

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NCAA Athletes Start a New Season with No Labor Rights, No Compensation and No Help for Their Families

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse UniversityScholarship in Action 

NCAA athletics has become the new prohibition – the illogical construct that creates a destructive underground economy because leadership is being guided by an illusion of what should be, rather than confronting the NCAA for what it really is: a professional sports league. Some of our most highly educated figures within academia are forced to convince themselves that a multi-billion dollar sports entertainment behemoth should be able to get away with not paying its primary employees.

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Home Ownership Hits Lowest Levels Since 1965

black wealth, african american wealth, home ownership

By JasmineHughes

According to a recent Morgan Stanley report, the United States is fast becoming a nation of renters. As the foreclosure crisis continues to gain momentum homeownership is reaching its lowest numbers in almost 5 decades.

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Monday, August 8, 2011

Dr. Julianne Malveaux: S&P Downgrade is Beginning of the End

by Dr. Julianne Malveaux

When S&P downgraded the US bond rating from AAA to AA+, they formalized the financial buzz of months, if not years. The US is going to hell in a hand basket, replicating the denouement of England in the mid-twentieth century. Our tax structure, which rewards the rich and punishes the middle class, looks like something from a developing country, and our economic distribution is going to look like that soon, as well. While many are disappointed and outraged that the flawed S&P felt they could involve themselves in the internal meat grinder of US politics by demanding a certain level of spending cuts, the bottom line is that our politicians were willing to take us to the brink on the debt ceiling, and this brinkmanship does not bode well for fiscal stability.

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Sunday, August 7, 2011

Fox News Calls President Obama’s Birthday Party a “Hip-Hop Barbecue that Didn’t Create Jobs”

black politics, african american politics, hip hop barbecue

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse UniversityScholarship in Action 

It appears that Fox News is at it again.   The same network that has commentators like Eric Bolling, who asked why President Obama was "inviting so many hoods to the hizzy" referenced his 50th birthday party as a "Hip-Hop Barbecue." 

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Massive Rioting in London after Police Shooting

mark duggan, london riots, black news

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Friday, August 5, 2011

What to Make of Black Women Playing Maids and Other Stereotypes in Hollywood?

Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer in "The Help"

by Renee Greene, Your Black World

“The Help” opens in theaters August 10.

In the midst of new millennium accusations of racism in Hollywood, and with the “underhiring” of blacks in the movie world for major A-list roles, it appears that black actresses can still find roles forged out of perpetually stereotypical characters. The Help, a best-selling novel-gone-silver-screen, is centered on the lives of Aibileen and Minny, two black maids living in Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960s. The maids are portrayed by African American actresses Viola Davis andOctavia Spencer.

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Monday, August 1, 2011

Nobel Prize Winning Economist Says that the Debt Ceiling Deal was a Disaster

barack obama, black politics

Your Black World reports.

Princeton University Professor and Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman expressed his concerns about the recent debt ceiling deal between President Obama and the Republicans.  Krugman said that the president effectively caved in to threats from the Republicans, and gave them what they wanted. 

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Black Men Get Decades, but Ivy League Dope Dealer Gets Probation

By JasmineHughes

It is no secret that Blacks have been on the short end of fair treatment in legal sentencing for decades. Since the establishment of mandatory minimums and three-strike laws under the leadership of the late Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy, African-Americans have essentially been thrown under the prisons. READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY →