• A bad marriage can kill you. Literally. [CNN]
• Republicans want more minority involvement? Could have fooled me. [TBO]
• The Jena mayor is pissed about John Mellencamp and Mos Def’s Jena Six video, but no one really cares. [SFGate]
• The price is wrong, Barker. [TWN]
• An African Burial Ground Memorial opened in NYC last week in a spot that was supposed to be turned into a parking lot. [Reuters]
“Strange Fruit” was originally written as a poem by a Jewish schoolteacher from the Bronx named Lewis Allan, who was horrified and moved by photos of a recent lynching Indiana. The poem later became a song, and was popularized when Billie Holiday sang it in 1939.
Blood on the leaves
Blood at the root
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees
Pastoral scene of the gallow south
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth
The scent of magnolia sweet and fresh
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh
Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck
for the rain to gather
for the wind to suck
for the sun to rot
for the tree to drop
Here is a strange and bitter crop
“Strange Fruit,” indeed. Could a teenage prankster/racist listen to this song on a loop for a few hours and still think hanging a noose from a tree is harmless fun?
• There are ways to teach kids lessons about nooses without actually placing one around a child’s neck. I would hope. [BET]
• Schools no longer teach about the Little Rock Nine, says a member of the historic group. But I blogged about it! [CT]
• Alright, Master P is starting to really annoy me. [ABC7]
• A few more reasons why Clarence Thomas sucks and needs to get over it. [WP]
• In 1995, Ohio lawmakers requested a study analyzing whether or not blacks are treated more harshly in courts. Twelve years later, the study has mysteriously never been conducted. But c’mon, Ohio, I doubt you really need a study to answer your question. [ABJ]
• Al Sharpton’s going on The O’Reilly Factor tonight, presumably to discuss this. It’s sure to be a productive show. []
• It makes sense for Nike to make a shoe just for Native Americans, since they make Air Force Ones just for blacks. []
• An Egyptian antiquities expert says he doesn’t know why some African Americans are all up in arms about King Tut’s race, because, he says, Ancient Egyptians weren’t black or Arab. []
• I think we’ve all seen this before. [Gawker]
• Clearly, Michael Vick is not interested in holding onto the few supporters he has left. [FOX]
Fifty years ago, the city of Little Rock’s gradual plan to integrate its schools as part of the landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, had gotten off to an extremely bad start. Neither the Governor of Arkansas, an avid segregationist, nor Little Rock’s white citizens weren’t going to allow Little Rock Central High School to be integrated without a fight.
It took 21 days of trying, but the nine black students selected by the school board for their attendance and grades finally entered their new school for good on September 25, 1957, but only after President Eisenhower deployed federal troops and federalized the Arkansas National Guard, members of which had previously been working, at the governor’s bidding, to keep the teenagers out of the building.
CONTINUED »
• Tiger Woods has done a lot to expand his bank account but little to bring more blacks to the game. [BA]
• Apparently, Colonial Williamsburg is short on black history interpreters. Who does all the cooking and tobacco farming, then? [VG]
• Black people: bringing style to political protests for nearly a century. [PI]
• Master P is starting to seem genuine about his crusade for positive music, but I can’t forgive him for refusing to take off his sneakers on Dancing With The Stars. Or Black Supaman.
• And here come the white supremacists…[WDBJ7]
• Bob Johnson recent experiences with racism come from white people not understanding how insanely, unimaginably rich he is. [WP]
• Despite Mychal Bell’s conviction getting overthrown, protesters will still rally Thursday for the Jena 5. []
• I can’t really be mad. The cash is really all 50 Cent has left. []
• Oh, the conundrum of American history — celebrating the beginning of our country means celebrating something else a lot more sinister. [DP]
• The NAACP continues to rally for a North Carolina black man they say is wrongly accused of raping and murdering a young woman. [WRAL]
• According to a very odd scientific study, straight gets more tangled than curly hair. I believe if I had participated in the trials the results would have skewed far in the other direction.
• A new outlines all the reasons that contribute to the relatively low life expectancy of African Americans.
• Primary biliary cirrhosis, among other things, could be a contributing factor to the whole life expectancy thing.
• So that Beyonce Lemonade diet wasn’t healthy? I never would have guessed.
• A piece of a meteorite that’s sacred to an Oklahoma Native American tribe is being sold to the highest bidder. Shockingly, people are about that.
• I have a hard time believing this mugshot is real, but that’s what The Smoking Gun says. [TSG]
• Beyonce as best dressed? An odd choice, but I’ll keep my longer opinion to myself. [Reuters]
• As if there weren’t enough reasons already to get your college degree. [CC]
• I’m a big fan of black, myself. [AA]
• Blacks see racism in the Confederate flag, and, no matter what they say, so do the white people who proudly wave it. It’s kind of the point. [MBO]
