Race-Talk: Putting this Year of “Firsts” in Perspective

Written by Race-Talk’s Kira Hudson Banks.
I know the Oscars happened a week ago, but I’m still nagged by some of the larger implications of the event. The general controversy has been covered here and elsewhere. What I would like to do is highlight the limited scope of people of color throughout the history of the [...]

Family Remains Key to Cultural Identity After 18

Mom and dad will be happy.  Even after children turn 18, they still cling to the cultural traditions and learnings from their youth.  Cultural education remains a key facet of parenting.
According to a new study from San Francisco State University,
The formative years don’t stop at 18 according to a new study that found the actions [...]

Black History Month Still Important

We don’t fall into the “post-racial” category.  Black History Month is, and remains, an important reflection on and celebration of African American history and culture.  Newsweek has a web exclusive by Raina Kelley explaining why she isn’t ready to ditch Black History Month:
When did everybody start hating on Black History Month? I have yet to [...]

What is Black Love?

What is Black Love? A simple woman like me would suggest that it is the love between a black man and a black woman. Perhaps that’s why there is such an uproar about Essence’s Black Love Issue with New Orleans Saints player Reggie Bush. For those of us not up on pop culture paparazzi news, [...]

Haiti on My Mind

Catastrophic doesn’t begin to describe the Haiti earthquake’s devastation on a country already ravaged by poverty.  Haiti is one of the poorest in the Western Hemisphere, if not the world.  I can’t bear to watch the news footage or see the pictures of destruction without doing something to help.  I encourage you to do so [...]

Sites We Like: BlackYouthProject.com

What: The Black Youth Project, recently featured on ABC News,  is a national research project out of the University of Chicago that examines the attitudes, resources, and culture of African American youth ages 15 to 25, exploring how these factors and others influence their decision-making, norms, and behavior in critical domains such as sex, health, [...]

McWhorter: What To Get a Black Person For Christmas

Always thought-provoking, John McWhorter provides his recommendations on what Blacks need this Christmas:  Bill Cosby’s State of Emergency CD.
So very “2004” by now – the days when the kickoff question for an interview on black issues was whether you agreed with the views of Bill Cosby. What was interesting was how many black people actually [...]

Nobel Peace Prize: Obama’s No King?

Though no one in the media punditocracy found fault in President Obama’s acceptance speech in receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, author and pastor Byron Williams, writing in The Huffington Post, makes clear that President Obama shares little with the two African Americans receiving the prize before him, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and [...]

No Black Prince for Disney’s Tiana?

Black women across America gave a collective “It’s about time” when Disney announced pre-production on a film featuring a black princess.
Disney has traveled a long road to move from its early caricatures of lazy, big-lipped, bug-eyed, zoot-suited blacks to Princess Tiana, an energetic, smart and in-charge heroine. But as the national release of The Princess [...]

Black in the Age of Obama: Things Have Not Gotten Better

Some say things have gotten worse.  But, the belief that President Obama’s election was going to turn the page on race relations, rekindle a renewed sense of purpose in black men, inspire personal responsibility, stop kids from getting killed in senseless street violence, and have world leaders singing Kumbaya was overly simplistic and exaggerated to begin with. 
It’s not as [...]

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