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NEWS ABOUT: African Americans

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NYPD's Kelly Tried to 'Instill Fear' in Minorities: Ex-Cop

State senator Eric Adams testifies over stop-and-frisk laws

(Newser) - As controversy continues over New York City's stop-and-frisk law, a state senator—and former cop—has testified in federal court that the police commissioner aimed to "instill fear" in the black and Hispanic communities. State Sen. Eric Adams, a police officer for 22 years, said that during a... More »

Milestone: 2 Black Senators to Serve at Same Time

Cowan's appointment makes some history

(Newser) - The pick of William "Mo" Cowan to fill John Kerry's Senate seat in Massachusetts results in a little American history being made, notes Bloomberg . For the first time ever, two black senators will serve at the same time. Cowan joins Tim Scott of South Carolina , who got picked... More »

Was Biden Playing the Race Card?

One columnist says yes; another thinks he was just speaking the truth

(Newser) - Joe Biden says he didn't intentionally pull out a "chains"/slavery metaphor while speaking to largely black audience yesterday, but John Kass at the Chicago Tribune isn't buying it. Biden knew precisely what he was doing: playing the race card. It's something the Obama campaign did... More »

Exercise Does Little to Fight Black Girls' Obesity

Health advocates may need to change their message: experts

(Newser) - While exercise is a great way for white girls to fend off obesity, it's hardly effective among blacks, a study finds. Researchers reviewed 1,148 adolescent girls, comparing their physical activity and obesity rates. They found that white 12-year-olds who moved more—falling into the top half of researchers'... More »

Blacks Still Waiting for 1st 'Black President'

Frederick Harris: Obama afraid of supporting black issues

(Newser) - Maybe President Obama really is the first gay president —because his policies certainly aren't doing much for blacks. "Obama has pursued a racially defused electoral and governing strategy, keeping issues of specific interest to African Americans ... off the national agenda," writes Frederick Harris in the Washington ... More »

Menacing Pit Bull Led Zimmerman to Get Gun

Complex portrait emerges of Trayvon Martin's killer

(Newser) - In a bizarre twist in a killing that has come to stand for deadly racial violence, it turns out that the great grandfather of Trayvon Martin's killer was African-Peruvian. George Zimmerman was generally regarded as trustworthy by his racially mixed Florida neighbors, who asked him to launch a community... More »

Acura Apologizes for 'Not Too Dark' Casting Call

Super Bowl ad guidelines leaked to TMZ

(Newser) - Acura apologized this week over a casting document for its Super Bowl commercial that requested a black actor who is "not too dark." The casting sheet had specified: "Nice Looking, friendly. Not too dark." reports TMZ . An actor angry at being passed over for the commercial,... More »

Mixed-Race Americans Must Identify as Black

Multiracial African Americans, don't leave blacks behind: Thomas Williams

(Newser) - Interracial marriages may be on the rise in America, but with racial problems still so prevalent, mixed-race black people have an "ethical obligation" to identify as black, writes Thomas Chatterton Williams in the New York Times . Williams says he is grateful to live in modern America, where he has... More »

Black Students Face More Arrests Than Whites: US

Arne Duncan: Minorities suffer 'harsher discipline'

(Newser) - African-American students are arrested much more frequently than whites in America's large public schools, according to the government's largest-ever study of the subject. Among school systems with more than 50,000 students, 35% of arrests involved African-Americans, though they represent just 24% of the student body. White students... More »

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 »

Best Black President? Still Might Be Clinton

Obama has work to do to take that title: L. Douglas Wilder

(Newser) - When Bill Clinton got tagged as the nation's "first black president," L. Douglas Wilder—the first black governor of Virginia—never quite bought it. When Barack Obama got elected, Wilder figured the US finally had the real deal. Three years in, however, Wilder isn't so sure... 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 »

Glenn Beck: Let's Go Back to 'Colored'

'African Americans should be proud to be just American,' he says

(Newser) - Glenn Beck thinks it's time to ditch "African American" and go back to using "black" or even "colored," or so he said on his radio program earlier this week, reports the Cleveland Leader . "Didn't you feel ridiculously stupid everywhere in Africa, in Europe,... More »

Breastfeeding Reduces Black Women's Cancer Risk

It might counteract susceptibility to specific form of breast cancer: Study

(Newser) - If you’re a black woman with plans to have a lot of kids, you might want to breastfeed them. Why? Because African-American women are especially susceptible to a specific form of breast cancer that isn’t linked to estrogen or progesterone levels—unless, a new study suggests, they breastfeed.... More »

Black Northerners Migrating South in Record Numbers

More opportunity and a spiritual return among main reasons

(Newser) - The Great Migration may have come full circle. African-Americans are leaving large cities in the East and Midwest and moving to the South in the greatest numbers in decades, say demographers. Black New Yorkers especially have taken to the South—more than half of those who left the state in... More »

Unemployment Rate for African-Americans: 16.2%

It's even higher for black males, black teens

(Newser) - CBS News reports on the jobless rate for African-Americans, and the figures aren't pretty: While the national unemployment rate hovers around 9.1%, for blacks it stands at 16.2%. For black males the rate is even higher, at 17.5%. Things get even worse in NYC, where... More »

Dear Muslims: 'I’m Sorry'

American should be ashamed of anti-Muslim extremism

(Newser) - America has learned better than to make sweeping statements about Jewish people, Japanese Americans, and African Americans, so why, asks Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times , in the 21ist century is it OK to equate Muslims with terrorism? It's not, he says. Those who follow Islam are not a... More »

DEA Seeks Ebonics Experts

Justice requests linguists to 'translate' wiretaps

(Newser) - Fluent in Ebonics? The Justice Department may have a job for you. It put out a call for 2,100 linguists fluent in 114 languages in May, and plans to hire up to nine Ebonics specialists to help the DEA's Atlanta field division catch drug traffickers. They'll "translate" wiretaps... More »

Derby's Forgotten Legacy: Black Jockeys

They once ruled the sport, until Jim Crow came along

(Newser) - When the Kentucky Derby gets under way today, not one black jockey will be in the race. Which isn't exactly news. But consider this: For the first Derby, in 1875, 13 of the 15 jockeys were black. In fact, black jockeys—the first were slaves—thoroughly dominated the sport through... More »

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