“A black candidate doesn’t want to look like he’s only a black candidate,” the Rev. Al Sharpton, the civil rights activist, who ran for president in 2004, said in an interview about Mr. Obama. “If he overidentifies with Sharpton, he looks like he’s only a black candidate. A white candidate reaches out to a Sharpton Read More
The details surrounding the assassination of Benazir Bhutto are still murky. A former Bhutto aide said that officials charged with her government were “dismissive” about her security requests. NPR said she was aware of the risks, but wanted to campaign anyway. The presidential candidates here are already offering up their perfunctory condolences; Slate’s John Dickerson Read More
We kinda called this a month ago: Oprah has pissed off some of her fans by endorsing Obama. What we (naively) didn’t call: they’re mad at her for endorsement because they say it’s just because he’s black. (C’mon, white folks. Really? Ugh.) Oh, yeah. Oprah’s homie Maya Angelou endorsed Hillary Clinton. Also, she likes Butterfingers. Read More
It was mostly symbolic: New Jersey hasn’t actually executed someone it’s sentenced to death in more than forty years. But its decision to repeal the death penalty last week was still a seismic political event. The decision emboldened anti-death penalty lawmakers in other states like Nebraska and Maryland. (Four other states where the death penalty Read More
Some high rollers at Sony thought so much of Michael Mays, a filmmaker from one of L.A.’s roughest neighborhoods, that they donated $25,000 worth of film for his next movie, “Trouble.” He hopes to have “Trouble” wrapped by February when he turns eighteen. [NYT] I wanna see this when it drops to see what all Read More
Bossip (recent headlines: Is Common Hittin’ Kerry Washington? and Exclusive: John Legend is Banging Another Model) is throwing its presidential endorsement behind Obama. (To be fair, it’s not like political discourse in this country is a long way from scribbling wise on photos.) Their rationale? It is a mistake for some of our people to Read More
So Mitt Romney, after being questioned as to whether his pops really marched with MLK, said that he meant they did so “in a figurative sense.” Said dNA over @ J&J: “Romney’s campaign is also saying that reports of Romney being with Salt-and-Pepa and Heavy D up in the Limousine were also not meant to Read More
I wanted to shout out Racialicious’s best blog entries from 2007, which spawned some great discussions about race and the media from last year. (You’ll need to scroll down; they’re on the panel to the right).
Michael Oher was born in the 1980s on the desperately poor, black side of Memphis. His father was murdered shortly after he was born. His mother was a crackhead. By the time he was an adolescent, he’d been in nearly a dozen different schools. One obese foster parent, who took him in for the money Read More
Whatzhisface goes after Obama. Bill Clinton on Charlie Rose Saturday night: “When is the last time we elected a president based on one year of service in the Senate before he started running?”” Obama responds: “I understand there’s a history of politics being all about slash and burn…. I recall what the Clintons themselves called Read More
