race card

If you’re a married congressman, it’s probably not a good idea to send shirtless photos of yourself to women you encounter on Craigslist. New York Congressman Christopher Lee found that out the hard way after a woman he’d exchanged flirtatious emails with—including the shirtless one—outed him on the gossip website Gawker. In the emails, 46-year-old Lee portrayed himself as a divorced father and lobbyist seven years his junior. When Gawker posted his deceitful exchanges with the woman—Yesha Callahan—on its site Feb. 9, Lee resigned, leading mainstream media outlets across the country to pick up the story. But in the black blogosphere there was particular buzz about the Lee scandal when word spread that Callahan, whose identity was initially kept secret, is African American.

Iowa Rep. Steve King reportedly plans to reintroduce a bill that would make English the official language of the U.S. The bill would require those trying to become naturalized U.S. citizens to be tested on their ability to read, write and speak English. It would also require that those pursuing U.S. citizenship be tested on their comprehension of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and related texts. Lastly, it would mandate that official functions of the U.S. government be carried out in English, which could mean that voting ballots would appear in no language besides English.

This bill fails on so many levels.

If you’re a dark-skinned black woman in Egypt, you’re likely to be sexually propositioned by men and slighted by women there. At least, that’s what African-American journalist Sunni Khalid observed during his three years in the North African country with his Kenyan Somali wife.

Which one is uglier: Halle Berry’s custody battle or the public’s reaction to it?  The more comments I read on the web about Berry’s fight for custody of daughter, Nahla, the more I’m convinced of the latter.

Make no mistake. I’m not saying that the battle between Berry and her ex Gabriel Aubry over Nahla isn’t a nasty one. After all, Berry’s camp insinuated that Aubry was an unfit father. The French Canadian model has also been accused of hurling the N-word at Berry. These racial allegations have resulted in all sorts of mudslinging—with commenters on mainstream (or non-black owned websites) calling Berry vicious names, and commenters on black sites using the allegation that Aubry hurled slurs at Berry to justify why interracial relationships should be avoided.

Saturday Night Live’s "Bride of Blackenstein" skit did black women no favors. In this blaxploitation-like spoof of The Bride of Frankenstein, which aired Jan. 30, we learn that even a black chick created from scratch in a laboratory is demanding, bossy and built like an extra from the "Baby Got Back" video. Starring SNL guest host Jesse Eisenberg as Igor and musical guest Nicki Minaj as the Bride, the skit opens as the latter first emerges from her coffin:

Breaking news: the New York Times has discovered mixed people. Did you know that the number of racially mixed families in the US is growing? Or how about that some mixed kids feel pressured to choose one race? And get this—multiracial people find it annoying to be asked, "What are you?"

Steve Harvey’s making headlines once again—not because of his underwhelming relationship advice but because his ex-wife Mary has called him out for cheating on her and leaving her with nothing when they divorced in 2005. Who knows if her allegations are true, but they’ve certainly undermined Harvey’s credibility. This is good news for black women, I think.

Gabrielle Union. Wanda Sykes. Stacey Dash.

What do these three actresses have in common? They’ve all played roles that fit into the black best friend archetype, otherwise known as BBFs. These characters exist to comfort the white heroine when she’s down, to egg her on when she needs motivating or to tell her off when she loses integrity. Sometimes, though, these characters aren’t black, but other women of color. Think Keiko Agena’s character Lane Kim on Gilmore Girls or Mindy Kaling’s character Shira in the new film No Strings Attached.

Last year a Latina friend of mine who’s unhappily single outlined what she’s looking for in a mate. She wants a man who’s college-educated, socially conscious, speaks Spanish and is Latino. "It’s not that I’m against interracial dating or anything," she explained self-consciously. You see, I’m in an interracial relationship, and she didn’t want to offend me.

How did you celebrate the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday—sleeping in, cruising sales at the mall or maybe even working because you didn’t have the day off? Of course, you may have actually spent the day attending a Martin Luther King Day parade or engaging in civil rights activism—for which you deserve to be commended because so few people observe the holiday by recognizing King and his work. I, for one, spent MLK Day watching the Oprah Winfrey Show to check out her roundup of programs she’s done on race over the past 25 years. So, what were Oprah’s most memorable shows on the subject?