Ta-Nehisi absolutely nails it: What I know about “inner city blacks,” of those who “act ghetto,” is the same as what I lately came to know about about suburban whites, about Puerto-Rican New Yorkers, about Ivy Leauge graduates, about gay conservatives, and Israeli-Americans. That they are all different from us all and from each other, Read More
(x-posted from here) As someone who is pretty much in the tank for various forms of health-related government intervention, I’m not terribly bothered by the idea of a tax on soda and other forms of junk food. Over the long-term, health-care costs will continue to stay relatively high unless there is a significant shift in Read More
by Black Scientist. x-posted from Black Scientist. Entertainment Weekly recently ran an article about Tyler Perry and “black america’s secret culture war”. I’m not sure what they’re talking about and I tend to think I’m black. but apparently, there’s a culture war in progress right under our noses, and it’s all due to mr. multi-millionaire Read More
The linguist/conservative pundit John McWhorter and playwright/actress/mimic Sarah Jones did a great segment last year on Studio 360 called ‘Sounding Black’ that dealt with Barack Obama’s strategically deployed ‘blaccent’ — and what it suggested about our perceptions of race and class. JONES: Just like Barack Obama, I am a person of mixed-race heritage. But, I Read More
There’s a study by a PhD student at CalTech making the rounds that attempts to link the intelligence of college students with their musical tastes. (The above is condensed; the full chart is here.) For the purposes of this study, musical taste was compiled by compiling the most popular artists among students at a particular Read More
Completely Misreading the National Mood, AIG Makes It Rain. AIG, the mammoth and mismanaged insurer — which incidentally holds the global financial market by the balls — is giving out $165 million in bonuses after getting $170 billion in taxpayer bailout money. Everyone is pissed. AIG said its legally obligated to pay the bonuses, which Read More
The Corner’s Lisa Schiffren: The doctors, lawyers, engineers, executives, serious small-business owners, top salespeople, and other professionals and entrepreneurs who make this country run work considerably harder than pretty much anyone else (including most of the chattering class, and all politicians). They are not robber barons, or trust-fund babies, or plutocrats, or even celebrities. They are Read More
A little while back, I got into a mind-boggling back and forth on another blog in which the proprietor asserted that poor people are the most equipped to shrug off the effects of an economic downturn. His argument was basically, hey, poor people are already poor, so they probably won’t even feel it. No, seriously. Obviously, Read More
There’s no real redeeming journalistic value in the NYT’s Sunday Styles section. It’s a catalogue of overachiever nuptials and trend stories, most of which don’t hold up to the slightest scrutiny. A lot of the time it’s dumb fun. But other times, it seems to exists solely for the purpose of making you roll your Read More
Penelope Trunk tries to figure out why it is that educated women get more head. Her editor said the link is “coincidental, not causal,” as women who are more educated are also more self-confident and thus more likely to ask. Megan has some ideas. …I think it’s worth noting that societies that allow and even Read More
