Fake Obama Gives RNC Real Problems

Note to GOP: Don't let this man, real or imagined, anywhere near your events. He's the harbinger of your doom.

His jokes about only celebrating half of Black History Month and his mother not being a Kardashian (despite her obvious love of a black man) "killed" at the Republican Leadership Conference on Saturday, but Reggie Brown's fake Obama got the GOP equivalent of the Sandman coming for him once the jokes starting flying at the RNC's expense. 

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"Dark Girls" Documentary Takes Painful Look at Colorism

Directed by Bill Duke, a 9-minute teaser for his new documentary "Dark Girls" takes a look at how colorism both within and without the African American community affects dark skinned black women. The womens' stories in this release are all quite painful in the rejection they felt or still feel from people, even loved ones, due to their skin color. 

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Cornel West's Legitimate Obama Gripe Comes With An Unfortunate Side of "Jilted-Lover"

Sometimes I truly think that if President Obama had just invited Cornel West to the White House and baked him some cookies he'd never have anything to mean to say. In the professor's latest interview, West wraps up legitimate concerns about the poor and Civil Rights with "Where's my extra Inauguration tickets?" and "Why didn't you call me back?"

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Black Women: So Hideous No One Will Leave Us Alone

Actress Jill Marie JonesSo Psychology Today finds me unattractive. Not that anyone asked their opinion. I'm not linking to the obvious link bait, trolling article that they've since apparently pulled down, but you've probably already had the link emailed, tweeted or Facebooked to you several times today. I realize the article is passing itself off as "science," but why-oh-why is everyone so interested in smacking around black women lately? For a group of women so universally unloved people sure can't seem to stop screwing with us -- both physically and metaphorically.

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Census Says There Are More Biracial People, But That Depends On Your Definition of Mixed

'True Grit' star Hailee Steinfeld is just your average Filipino, Jewish, something or other, multiracial American.Since 2000, the population of biracial and multiracial people has boomed by 50 percent according to 2010 Census data. The New York Times recently ran a story saying that because of changes in Census reporting, more people reported they are more than one race, but has our multiracial population actually boomed or is it just that both our government and society are more accepting of multiracial people?

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Jalen Rose, Grant Hill and 'Authentic' Blackness

Via Jalen Rose on TwitterRecently in an ESPN documentary pro-basketball player Jalen Rose, when talking about his days as part of the famed Michigan "Fab 5", recounted how he much he disliked black players from Duke University as a teen, seeing them as "Uncle Toms" and adding some barbs towards fellow pro-baller and Duke graduate, Grant Hill. While Rose apologized to Hill on Twitter and went on to explain that his comments were coming from a place of hurt and jealousy as a teen who came from tough circumstances, Hill wrote his own response that appeared in the New York Times. Hill defended himself and other black Duke players, arguing that the term "Uncle Tom," normally used for "sell-outs" was now distorted to include black people from middle class, two-parent families. But what was really going on here is something far more hurtful and complicated. 

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Beyonce Dons Blackface for French Magazine

Click to enlarge.Well, I guess this is a sort of improvement in that it's not Lara Stone painted black to celebrate Fela Kuti. It's just Beyonce ... in blackface to celebrate Afrobeat pioneer and activist Fela Kuti. So, should I only be particially offended? Because, ahem, it's still offensive. In the sense that this "tribute" ignores the fact that there are African fashion models and goes into some weird territory where a lighter complexioned black woman is just a slightly more tan stand-in for the white woman they'd normally have here doing the banana dance.

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Florida Gov. Is Down With the Homies Because He Grew Up Poor 'N Stuff

Florida Gov. Rick ScottIn a moment of confusion I forgot what day it was this morning. Mostly because I thought I posted my Charlie Rangel story on Thursday, but the tagline said Wednesday, so I thought today was Thursday for a moment, when it is in fact Friday. Being confused about the date is part of my "new reality" where I juggle random jobs and people and places and things and run from one situation to the next. But work-related confusion can happen to anyone. Like, take Florida Governor Rick Scott who thought, through a confusing haze, that he'd get down and relate to Florida's black legislators by talking about growing up poor with uneducated parents. Which, you know? I guess would be signifiers of blackness if it weren't for things like "Not all black people come from poor or humble backgrounds" and "Not all white people are born in pristine Ivory towers."

I mean, has the man NEVER listened to a country music song? Poor white people aren't novel, just invisible in popular culture outside of country music. Just like their opposite day, counter-part -- the bougie, affluent "Cosby Show-esque" Negro.

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My Boyfriend, The Racist: Halle Berry's Rumors Are Reality for Other Women

From People MagazineIn light of Halle Berry's break from Gabriel Aubry (which has turned into a bunch of point/counter-point, accusation, he's a racist, she's crazy nightmare), I was fascinated by the commentary online about whether or not a guy could date Halle Berry, have a kid with her and still be a racist. Considering Berry's track record of somewhat dysfunctional to abusive relationships -- even if the "he said, she said" is more distraction than truth -- if any woman could end up in a relationship with a racist, she runs a high probability of that. To that point, for TheLoop21 I interviewed a woman who was once in a four-year-relationship with a racist. Because, these things do happen sometimes.

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