race

Is ‘Planking’ Racist?

9:43AM Adrian Chen | Planking, the fad in which people take pictures of themselves lying face down and upload them to the internet, is not racist. It’s just stupid. But bloggers and Twitter users are in an uproar over what they say is planking’s origins in the slave trade. More »

American Apparel Hit With $US343K Judgment In Racial Slur Case

12:21AM Hamilton Nolan | In 2008, Christopher Renfro, a black former employee of anti-uglies retailer American Apparel, sued the company for racial discrimination, alleging that a coworker had repeatedly called him “nigger”. Finally, the suit has been settled. In Renfro’s favour. More »

Dove Body Wash: Strong Enough To Turn A Black Woman White

5:40AM Hamilton Nolan | Dove VisibleCare body wash: “Visibly more beautiful skin.” Bye-bye black skin, hello white skin! (Scrub hard!) Can this ad possibly be real? More »

What Is The Stuff That White People Like, Really?

4:41PM Max Read | Dating site OkCupid analysed the profiles of 526,000 users to discover the “interests, hobbies, tastes and self-descriptions especially important to each racial group”. So, what do white people like? Tom Clancy, Van Halen, golfing and the Red Sox. Duh. More »

MLK’s Dream Is Dead: White Kid Beat Up For Listening To Gucci Mane

6:14AM Hamilton Nolan | A 22-year-old white guy in Florida (NATCH) was walking along, listening to some Gucci Mane, when a 14-year-old black kid with seven friends totally kicked his arse – for listening to rap while white. MLK weeps so fucking hard. More »

White Editor Hired At Black Magazine! Crisis?

12:26AM Hamilton Nolan | Oooo, it’s a racial-cultural-media controversy of the most delicious sort! Essence magazine has hired a white lady as its new fashion director. Is that bad? Or, perhaps, not bad? We’ll tell you what we think below – then, everyone argue! More »

Black People (Will And Jada!) Are Headed To Broadway

2:36AM Richard Lawson | The New York Post‘s resident theatre crone Michael Riedel writes today about “the Denzel effect”, suggesting that since he won the Tony for Fences back in June, lots of Hollywood actors, especially black ones, have become interested in the stage. More »

Confirmed: Barack Obama Is Black

5:38AM Maureen OConnor | Are you sitting down? This may come as a shock. On his Census, the president checked the box for “Black, African Am., or Negro”. Multiracial people can check more than one box, but he did even though his mother was white. [NYT]

America Still Arguing About Race-Mixing

3:39AM Hamilton Nolan | A controversial new book by a Harvard-educated lawyer weighs in on American society’s most hotly debated sociological quandary: Should black ladies date people who are not black? The year now is 1955. Oh, it’s not? More »

Does Tiger Woods Not Sell Magazines Because He’s Black Or Boring?

5:28AM Brian Moylan | That’s the conclusion that Rob Shuter comes to in the Huffington Post when he says that the tabloid covers that carried his famous face didn’t move at the newsstand. Well, let’s see how Brittany Murphy fairs this week. More »