Posted on November 24, 2006 - by Administrator

In case you missed it…

by Jen Chau and Carmen Van Kerckhove

Every Friday afternoon we sum up the week’s best posts from New Demographic’s various projects. Here we go!

CONSCIOUS MEDIA MAKER
a blog for entertainment, media, advertising and public relations professionals who are committed to bringing about more realistic, three-dimensional representations of people of color

• One year later, how has BET changed? Last fall, BET made a lot of noise about its new entertainment team, headed up by Reginald Hudlin who brought on Toure, Nelson George, and Selwyn Hinds. Now, one year later, Forbes checks in on their progress.
• Please note: We’re actually going to discontinue Conscious Media Maker as of today. We didn’t think of this when we came up with the idea for the blog, but there is way too much overlap with Racialicious. So, this will be the last post. Also, we have another blog in mind that we’d like to launch, so it’ll free up some time for us to focus on that new project.

ADDICTED TO RACE
a podcast about America’s obsession with race

• Episode 48: Carmen interviews Daniel Golden, author of “The Price of Admission: How America’s Ruling Class Buys Its Way into Elite Colleges — and Who Gets Left Outside the Gates.” Golden reveals the elaborate system of legacy preferences and “development” cases that has created affirmative action for white wealthy students.

ANTI-RACIST PARENT
a blog for parents who are committed to raising children with an anti-racist outlook

• Columnist Intro – Amber: As a white woman, I was not raised to think about my race. I was supposed to be colorblind and not acknowledge that I noticed other people’s race.
• Ask Anti-Racist Parent: book series featuring characters of color? So are there book series featuring characters of color for children out there, and I’m just not hearing about them? If so, what are they?
• Columnist Intro – Margie: My first reaction, upon receiving an invitation to contribute to Anti-Racist Parent, was to ask who would want to listen to a middle-aged white woman talk about race. What could I possibly add to this dialog?

RACIALICIOUS
a blog about the intersection of race and pop culture

• Kanye West: mixed race women are “mutts” and exist solely for music videos: Kanye reportedly told the magazine, “If it wasn’t for race mixing, there’d be no video girls…Me and most of my friends like mutts a lot … Yeah, in the hood they call ‘em mutts.”
• Kramer drops the n-bomb repeatedly in racist tirade: Michael Richards, who played Kramer on Seinfeld, went on a racist tirade on Friday at Los Angeles’s Laugh Factory after a black audience member heckled him.
• Michael Richards on Letterman: “I’m not a racist”: The fact that Richards, when provoked by a black man, immediately reminded him that it wasn’t so long ago that he could have been lynched and made a public spectacle of, to me indicates that he is resentful of having to tolerate blacks being equal to him, and longs for the days when he could exercise his “god-given” superiority.
• Of course Michael Richards would have rocked blackface: A clip from the 1986 movie “Whoops Apocalypse” has surfaced on the internet, featuring Michael Richards in full-on blackface, afro wig and attempting Ebonics.
• White supremacy by any other name: Michael Richards and his ruined career are not the point here. The point is that if we’re ever to move beyond our current racial strife, we need to begin with enough intellectual honesty to acknowledge and understand America’s glaring legacy of white supremacy.