- Obama was on SNL. That dude is the opposite of spontaneous and funny; you can see the gears turning in his head.
- Oprah Winfrey held a press conference with South African reporters discuss the alleged physical and sexual abuse of students at her well-publicized school for girls by a dormitory matron. (Given her own history, this probably cuts very deep for her.)
- Paul Krugman says that Rudy Giuliani, an always-polarizing figure during his mayoralty where issues of race were concerned, is going to use race as a way to appeal to conservative white voters in the South. But, um, who doesn’t?
- RiShawn Biddle, an editorial writer for the Indianapolis Star, was fired after writing a column called “Coons For Power.”
- Anita Hill — yes, that Anita Hill — wrote an editorial in the Boston Globe chastising Ward Connerly, the former University of California Regent who hates him some affirmative action.
- Al Sharpton says he’s calling off his protest of Isiah Thomas, who was sued by a black female executive for sexual harassment and wrongful termination over the summer. Sharpton wanted an apology for Isiah’s suggestion during the trial that it was okay for black men to call black women “bitches” but not for white men to do so (I’m not sure what that protest or Isiah’s apology actually accomplishes in fighting misogyny, but whatever). Ta-Nehisi Coates says that Al Sharpton isn’t a black leader, he just plays one on TV.
