The Washington Post launched a new webzine. Called The Root it aims to be a slate "aimed at black people". It seems to be pretty good. I would call it a BLACK KOS aimed at the mainstream LOL
CELEBRATE BLACK HISTORY MONTH
CULTURE
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OUCH That's all I can say about this next one. I like his work but boy o boy, Harvard Law professer Randall Kennedy is no stranger to controversy. His bestseller N!gger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word argued that "legitimizing the use of that term for all members of society would remove its negative connotations." If you though that caused sparks to fly wait until you read, How to know if you're a sellout Sellout: The Politics of Racial Betrayal.
It's safe to say that nearly every black person in the United States has, at some point in his or her life, been warned about or accused of "selling out". It is often an accusation that delivers an instant and unique sting. But what exactly is "selling out" in the black community?
Just who is betraying whom? Are Bill Cosby and Oprah sellouts for "attacking" hip-hop culture? Have rap artists "sold out" to predominantly white corporate interests who use them to push their own exploitative ideas of black culture to a predominantly white audience? Are black conservatives like Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice and the greatly maligned Clarence Thomas "sellouts" or simply misunderstood?...
Harvard Law professor Randall Kennedy seeks to define the notion of selling out, and in so doing, constructively shape the often acrimonious discussion about selling out in the black community.
I plan on riding down to Harvard to hear him speak on this one!
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INTERNATIONAL
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This is a worrying trend in Africa's richest nation. Power Failures Outrage South Africa
At first, the power blackouts seemed a mere nuisance, the electricity suddenly dead for two or three hours at a time, two or three times a day. Radio announcers jocularly advised listeners to make their morning toast by vigorously rubbing two pieces of bread together and wisecracked about amorous uses for the extra darkness.
But after three weeks of chronic failures —after regularly irregular vexations with lifeless computers, stove tops and stoplights — public forbearance has given way to outrage. This nation, long a reliable repository of cheap, plentiful electricity, finds itself pitifully short of juice.
The government has confessed to an "electricity emergency" and has begun a program of rationing for industrial users. This is a mortifying turn for a country that considers itself the powerhouse of Africa and resists comparisons to its underdeveloped, famine-plagued neighbors.
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I pray Kenya works this out somehow. A freshman lawmaker who could have been one of the keys to unlocking Kenya’s crisis was shot dead.
Melitus Mugabe Were, a freshman member of Parliament, could have been one of the keys to unlocking Kenya’s crisis, but he never got the chance.
He was a moderate opposition politician, a self-made businessman who grew up in a slum, and he bridged the ethnic divide. His wife is from another ethnic group, and as Kenya slid into chaos this past month after a disputed election, he shuttled between different communities and tried to organize a peace march.
On Tuesday morning, as he pulled up to the gate of his home, Mr. Were was dragged out of his car and shot to death.
UPDATE Second Kenyan Lawmaker Is Killed
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Haiti has always been a sad case, it has been a victim of it's own corruption (Baby Doc Duval) and international malfeasance (France forcing it to pay war reparations, the Bush Admin. allowing a democratically elected president to be over thrown, because he was a leftist) but this is heart breaking.
Poor Haitians Resort to Eating Dirt
It was lunchtime in one of Haiti's worst slums, and Charlene Dumas was eating mud. With food prices rising, Haiti's poorest can't afford even a daily plate of rice, and some take desperate measures to fill their bellies. Charlene, 16 with a 1-month-old son, has come to rely on a traditional Haitian remedy for hunger pangs: cookies made of dried yellow dirt from the country's central plateau.
The mud has long been prized by pregnant women and children here as an antacid and source of calcium. But in places like Cite Soleil, the oceanside slum where Charlene shares a two-room house with her baby, five siblings and two unemployed parents, cookies made of dirt, salt and vegetable shortening have become a regular meal.
''When my mother does not cook anything, I have to eat them three times a day,'' Charlene said. Her baby, named Woodson, lay still across her lap, looking even thinner than the slim 6 pounds 3 ounces he weighed at birth.
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POLITICS
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I have been ignoring this story for a while, and I really shouldn't be. Part of it is that having gone to U Mich. I am sensitive to "people picking on Detroit". But I also feel I have a good record as a blogger of calling out corruption from Black Pols. But Kwame Kilpatrick needs to go. This isn't a Clinton 1998 witch hunt, he was using city funds to live a "large" lifestyle. Detroit Mayor Pleads for Forgiveness
Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick pleaded for forgiveness from his family and his constituents Wednesday in an emotional televised speech, his delayed response to recently revealed racy text messages that contradict his sworn testimony that he did not have a physical relationship with a key aide.
"I truly apologize to you," Kilpatrick said, turning to his wife, Carlita, who sat by his side, holding his hand, at their family church.
"I am the mayor. I made the mistake," Kilpatrick told Detroit residents, looking into the camera. "I am accountable."
He did not publicly specify, however, what he was apologizing for, saying legal matters prevented him from doing so. A prosecutor is investigating whether the mayor and chief of staff Christine Beatty lied under oath during a whistle-blower's lawsuit last summer in which both denied having a physical relationship. A conviction of lying under oath can bring up to 15 years' imprisonment.
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This was a very interesting read. It begins with this question in Slate, When You Close a Housing Project, Where Do All the Gang Members Go? from the new book Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets
There are quite a number of interesting lessons to be taken away from the transformation of public housing in Chicago.
On the whole, I tend to agree with your sentiment: Losing the projects has led to a loss of awareness of poverty in the United States (a fact that is not going to be helped by the withdrawal of John Edwards from the presidential race). And you are right again in thinking that we are moving toward a European (or Latin American) urban landscape: the poor shunted to the outside while the middle and upper classes reclaim the central city.
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It's hard to imagine that a family could be worse off than in the projects! But, in fact, as the poor migrate outward, they find communities that simply don't have the services to cope with the influx of needy households: There are not enough settlement houses and faith-based organizations providing food and clothing; there is minimal affordable housing; landlords tend not to have much experience with the travails of poor people; and schools can't provide remedial education or day care. Public housing was more than simply shelter for most families. It was a place in which a number of supportive services for the poor congealed. Policymakers have simply hoped that the private market would provide a similar safety net and, to date, it hasn't occurred. Look around Baltimore, Atlanta, Chicago, and Miami and you see a real mess.
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ENTERTAINMENT
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OK this may not be the greatest Black Kos news from Canada, but I'm sure hope a certain canadian reader will enjoy it! (inside joke)
How She Moves, a vibrant gem from Canada
Just when you think all is lost for black films and that we’re stuck in an endless rut of Tyler Perry rip-offs along comes a small gem such as the very likeable and entertaining How She Move to revive your faith.
Admittedly, Move is far removed from being a revolutionary, genre busting, masterpiece of a film destined to change the face of cinema as we know it. Quite the contrary: It borrows ideas, themes and scenes from a dozen other movies that even the most casual of filmgoers has seen many times over. Sampling from Flashdance, West Side Story -- even from those cornball Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney "let’s-put-on-a-show" MGM musicals of the 1940’s. But Move plays, in many ways, like a hip-hop version of its true spiritual heir, the 1940 all black "race" film Broken Strings, right down to the ending which invokes the lead character’s parent. What Move contributes of its own is a vibrancy and a tightly woven story that results in a moving, wonderfully written picture with a gritty edge and a warm heart.
Set in Toronto. Move tells the story of Raya (Rutina Wesley), the daughter of Jamaican immigrants, who, when the film begins, is going through a series of personal crises. She’s still trying to cope with the recent loss of her older sister, who died making the wrong choices and associating with the wrong kinds of people in da’ hood. In addition, because of her family’s financial straits Raya is forced to drop out of the exclusive prep school she was attending and re-enter her broke down neighborhood high school.
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RACISM
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Those who read my blog, know that I am very carefull about using this term. But this editorial, that Alec Baldwin posted on his blog, that ran in the Hamptons is the worst thing I have red in some time, yes worse then what is posted at REDSTATE.
Exposing Racism: A Worthwhile Thing To Do
Correction: I needed to be more clear Mr. Baldwin didn't write the racist editorial he just reported on it. I decided not to link to it because it was too disgusting.
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Obituaries
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Marnesba Tillmon Tackett, 99; L.A. civil rights activist
Marnesba Tillmon Tackett, a civil rights activist who worked to eliminate inequities in education and played a key role in the battle over desegregation in Los Angeles public schools, died Dec. 17 at her home in Los Angeles. She was 99.
Tackett, who came to Los Angeles in 1952, was less than two months shy of her 100th birthday and died in her sleep of natural causes, said her granddaughter, Michelle Cole.
"She was committed to quality education in the public sphere, but it was always in the context of a just society," said state Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas (D-Los Angeles), who served as executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference/West after Tackett left the post in 1981. "She did not feel that a just society could be realized absent equity in the educational process."
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DIARIES OF NOTE
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A little self pimping Sorry MSM, facts show Latinos vote for Blacks by ME
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Power Outages Spread Accross Southern Africa by Lib Dem FoP
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Environmental racism, environmental justice: What have these terms meant? by Nuisance Industry
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Montel Williams Loses Job after Defending Troops on Fox News by Brandon Friedman
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Damn right race is an issue in the presidential elections... or at least it should be. by odum
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This one caused a lot of discussion Which is politically correct-Black or African-American? by roseeriter