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NEWS ABOUT: blacks

Falling From Favor: The Term 'African American'

Changing tastes have many preferring 'black'—or just 'American'

(Newser) - African Americans are increasingly shunning, well, the very term "African American," with many just preferring "black" amid increasingly complex origins and loyalties, reports the AP . "African American" rose to popularity in the 1980s, thanks in large part of Jesse Jackson's 1988 run for the presidency,... More »

All-White Urban Neighborhoods 'Effectively Extinct'

But Manhattan Institute report finds that racial inequality persists

(Newser) - As America prepares to celebrate Black History Month, revelations both encouraging and discouraging from the Manhattan Institute: A report released yesterday finds that the segregation of blacks in America's cities has hit its lowest point since 1910, thanks in part to the rise of black suburbanization, changes in the... More »

Black Atheists Dare to 'Come Out'

But face ostracism in highly religious community

(Newser) - African American atheism is not exactly a time-worn tradition. It's so rare, in fact, that black atheists risk losing friends and family, and having a much smaller pool of potential life partners, if they dare speak up, the New York Times reports. Washington resident Ronnelle Adams first told his... More »

How 'Washington' Became America's 'Blackest Name'

Were former slaves honoring George, embracing America?

(Newser) - George Washington’s name is synonymous with America—and of the people who bear his surname today, 90% of them are African-American, according to the 2000 census. How did “Washington” become, as Jesse Washington, writing for the AP calls it, the “blackest name" in America? It could be... More »

Report: 1 in 22 Black Americans Will Get HIV

Risk is 8 times higher than for whites

(AP) - Health officials estimate that 1 in 22 black Americans will be diagnosed with the AIDS virus in their lifetime—more than twice the risk for Hispanics and eight times that of whites. The CDC report released yesterday says the lifetime risk is 1 in 52 for Hispanics and 1 in... More »

Teen Charged After Telling Blacks to Leave Whole Foods

In copycat incident, 14-year-old girl grabs store's microphone

(Newser) - A New Jersey 14-year-old may need a reminder that no one likes a copycat—or a racist: The teen girl grabbed the microphone at a Whole Foods in Edgewater on Saturday and told all blacks to leave the store, much like a 16-year-old boy did at a Wal-Mart in the... More »

Forget 'Negro' and 'Black,' Bring Back 'Colored'

Reid affair offers opportunity to rethink terms for black Americans

(Newser) - The controversy over Harry Reid's use of the word "negro," along with its inclusion in US census forms, has opened up a chance to settle the debate over what black Americans should call themselves once and for all, Cord Jefferson writes at The Root , suggesting "colored" be... More »

Black Optimism Surges

About 40% say they're better off now than 5 years ago, up from 20%

(Newser) - The last two years have seen a big increase in black Americans’ sense of how well-off they are in society. A Pew poll concludes that the election of President Obama was a “spur for this sharp rise in optimism,” in which 39% of respondents say they are better... More »

Precious a Perfect Look at Black America

Tyler Perry's film tells a story buried far too long

(Newser) - At first horrified, political alarms blaring, as she watched the Precious trailer, Erin Aubry Kaplan realized after seeing the film that it’s actually a story that has long needed to be told: “that of a big, black, sullen-faced, illiterate girl who lives in the depths of the ghetto... More »

African-Americans Must Get Angry About Racial Profiling

(Newser) - Henry Louis Gates and Barack Obama have been “very publicly slapped down for speaking up and speaking out about police misbehavior,” but African-Americans “need to roar out their anger at such treatment,” Bob Herbert writes in the New York Times. Gates, not the officer who arrested... More »

LA Latinos Are Gay Marriage Wild Card: Poll

(Newser) - A new Los Angeles Times poll shows why gay marriage advocates and opponents are targeting LA Latinos after Proposition 8: Unlike African Americans, they are divided on the issue. While African American voters oppose gay marriage by 54% to 37%, Latinos are split, 45% in favor and 46% against.... More »

US Gets Its First Black Female Rabbi

'I will not be boxed in,' says newly ordained Stanton

(Newser) - Last week Alysa Stanton was ordained as a rabbi at the Plum Street Temple in Cincinnati, one of the country's oldest synagogues, and a little history was made—the US had its first black female leader of a Jewish congregation. Stanton, born a Pentecostal Christian, converted in 1987, enduring hostility... More »

Number of Blacks Jailed for Drugs Declines

But number of white inmates increases

(Newser) - A profound shift may be under way in the racial makeup of the nation's prison population, the Washington Post reports. For the first time in 20 years, the number of blacks imprisoned for drug offenses is falling sharply while the number of whites is rising, the Washington Post reports. One... More »

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