The News

Blogger reflects on NPR Black blogger roundtable; Nerdcore, a Hip-Hop for white nerds

Black Bloggers and NPR. Fighting words…
I have been ill and really did not want to blog today at all…. but this silliness bugs me… mainly because I know there are more astute African American bloggers available for this show. Yet News and Notes brings on the same crew over and over again. This is the same crew (except for one) that trashed Michael Moore’s film “Sicko” a few weeks ago.—Angry Independent

Obama Speaks to Black Leaders. Liking the sound of this.
Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama said Saturday that the jailing of a young man for 10 years for having consensual sex with another teenager is an injustice. “How is it Scooter Libby isn’t behind bars and we’ve got a young man in jail right now sentenced to 10 years for something that isn’t even a felony?” Obama said during a speech at an awards banquet for the Atlanta-based Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the civil rights organization founded by Martin Luther King Jr.—Washington Post

Housing Crackdown Hits Indian Immigrants. South Asian immigrants are well, immigrants too…
But in a twist to the familiar tales of suburban authorities breaking up illegally subdivided homes crowded with Hispanic day laborers, the mayor’s crackdown here has hit another group of immigrants: middle-class Indians who rent rooms or parts of rooms to Indian students, technology workers and others seeking a first foothold in this country.—NYTimes

Dungeons, Dragons and Dope Beats. NYTimes doesn’t really want to say ‘white’ here…
“I feel like the whole rap audience is me,” said Mr. Ward, perched on a tattered sofa in the greenroom at Emo’s before the show, wearing a Star Wars baseball cap. “White kids, playing video games, living in the suburbs. So what if one of them spoke their mind, what would happen then?”—NYTimes

An Immoral Philosophy. Krugman leading the way…
What kind of philosophy says that it’s O.K. to subsidize insurance companies, but not to provide health care to children?—Alternet/NYTimes

How Do Editors Reach Out to Writers of Color? A worthy discussion. People were—well, one person was—calling out ABW for placing the lion’s share of blame on the editors’ shoulders for needing to go and reach out to writers of color if they really wanted to diversify the stories in their rags. This someone asked when they were supposed to have the time to do all this outreach.—SeeLight.

For these Muslims, polygamy is an option. For those wondering…
Ali - who prefers to only use his first name - faces the challenges of polygamy every day. For 10 years, he’s been religiously married to two women, and lives with them under one roof in a working-class neighborhood of San Diego. Tuesday through Thursday he sleeps with his wife Hasanah on the first floor, then Saturday through Monday it’s upstairs with his second wife Asiila. That leaves his office, cluttered with photocopies of Quranic sayings and dusty pictures of relatives in hijab, as his only private room in the house.—SFGate

Posted at 6:53 AM, Aug 06, 2007 in Permalink | View Comments