Media Diversity Forum: African Americans in the Media

Octavia Spencer and Kevin Costner (Source: IMDB)

Black or White misses a chance to move beyond stereotypes

By: Nsenga K. Burton, Ph.D.
(Jan. 29, 2015 | The Root) - Black or White is a film that tackles the subject of biracial identity through the lens of a hard-drinking, tortured white lawyer and a spirited, self-made black entrepreneur, played by Academy Award winners Kevin Costner and Octavia Spencer. Despite Costner’s strong performance and a film intended to explore a complicated matter, director Mike Binder holds fast to narrative conventions, creating a melodramatic film that merely scratches the surface of what happens when two very different worlds collide. Read more

Langston Hughes' 113th birthday honored through animated Google doodle

By Lilly Workneh
(Feb. 1, 2015 | The Huffington Post) - Google on Sunday celebrated what would have been the 113th birthday of famed African-American poet and social activist Langston Hughes through a powerful tribute on its home page. The Doodle -- the name Google has given to its front-page features -- honors Hughes through an animated video featuring lines from his famous poem “I Dream a World.” Read more

See politics and power through the eyes of 3 Black female journalists

By Todd Steven Burroughs
(Feb. 3, 2015 | The Root) - There was a time when a U.S. president could wander around inside a moving train, by himself, during an afternoon. In 1948 Harry S. Truman made a surprise visit to the compartment of Alice Dunnigan, who, typewriter across her lap, was writing her story for the black press. He had heard about the trouble she had while walking down the red carpet with the rest of the White House press corps in Cheyenne, Wyo. Military officers did not recognize this black woman as belonging to the elite group and tried to take her out of the line. The president assured her that she should let him know if something like that ever happened again. Read more

Oprah Winfrey, 'Selma' director reteam for OWN drama series

By Michael O'Connell
(Feb. 2, 2015 | The Hollywood Reporter) - Oprah Winfrey and Selma director Ava DuVernay are teaming up for an original drama series for OWN — and Winfrey plans to use it as a vehicle for herself as an actress. Read more

Despite mobile and social media gains, Black Internet use still lags

By Lynette Holloway
(Jan. 28, 2015 | NewsOne.Com) - Much has been made of the fact that black people are more likely to access the Internet on mobile devices and to use Twitter than other groups in the U.S., but overall, Blacks continue to lag behind Whites in Internet use. Eighty percent of African Americans are Internet users, trailing White Americans by seven percentage points, according to a 2014 Pew Research Study. Read more

Jimi Hendrix, James Brown honored for Spotify's Black History Month

By Brittany Spanos
(Feb. 2, 2015 | Rolling Stone) - In celebration of Black History Month, music streaming service Spotify will honor one iconic artist each week throughout February. Today, a week of Aretha Franklin-centric content will kick off a month that will also highlight Jimi Hendrix (week of February 9th), Diana Ross (week of February 16th) and James Brown (week of February 23rd). Read more

A campaign to inspire the best in all of us

By Breanna Edwards
(Feb. 1, 2015 | The Root) - Sometimes we often just need a little reminder of what we’re capable of—the great values we have and our ability to subconsciously pass them on to another who might not see his or her own abilities. Read more

A game changing Black History Month

(At&T the Bridge) - Black History Month is a time to reflect on the journey and celebrate the culture of a community that has contributed so much to the world through technology, entertainment, service to mankind and more. Year after year, AT&T 28 Days celebrates Black History Month by honoring past leaders in the African American community and inspiring future leaders to make their mark in history today. Read more

#CrimingWhileWhite vs. #AliveWhileBlack: Twitter weighs in on Garner decision

By Sarah Galo
(Dce. 4, 2014 | The Guardian) - After a New York grand jury decision on Wednesday to not indict the police officer Daniel Pantelo in the death of Eric Garner on Staten Island in July, demonstrations in the streets led to 83 arrests. Many people, however, took to Twitter instead. Read more

Related Articles:
Iggy Azalea, Azealia Banks Feud on Twitter Over Eric Garner, Ferguson (Dec. 4, 2014 | USA Magazine)

#CrimingWhileWhite is exactly what's wrong with white privilege (Dec. 5, 2014 | The Guardian)

An Invitation to White People (Dec. 3, 2014 | The Huffington Post)

The New Republic: An appreciation
It is impossible to avoid the conclusion that black lives didn't matter much at all to the magazine.

By Ta-Nehisi Coates
(Dec. 9, 2014 | The Atlantic) - Last week, Franklin Foer resigned his editorship of The New Republic. A deep, if not broad, mourning immediately commenced as a number of influential writers lamented what occurred to them as the passing of a great American institution. The mourners have something of a case. TNR had a hand in the careers of an outsized number of prominent narrative and opinion journalists. Read more

Twitter usage of the N-word spiked 316% around Ferguson ruling

NWord Mapping on Twitter after Fergusion verdict

Photo Credit: Vocativ

By Gabriel Bell, EJ Fox
(Nov. 25, 2014 | Vocativ) - As you might have grasped from other stories coming out after the Grand Jury let Darren Wilson off the hook for shooting Michael Brown, people on social media can be pretty awful. But here we’ve mapped out a singular spike in awfulness. Read more

Social media reacts to the Ferguson grand jury verdict

By Yesha Callahan
(Nov. 25, 2014| TheRoot.Com Blog) - There are times when you have the feeling that justice will prevail. That slither of hope thickens to the point where you actually believe that just once, things will work out the way they’re supposed to. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case last night on social media as people eagerly awaited the grand jury decision in Ferguson, Missouri. Read more

Racism: It's the Law

By Robert Koehler
(Nov. 27, 2014 | The Huffington Post Blog) - Smoke and fire, sirens blaring, horns honking, a sudden hail of bullets. This is what passes for the American dialogue on race and justice.

It's hidden until it explodes. "By 10 p.m., a St. Louis County Police squad car burned just down the street from the Ferguson Police Department, with spare ammunition 'cooking off' or exploding in the car," the Wall Street Journal informed us. Read more

Celebrities call for 'Black Friday' boycott

(Nov. 27, 2014 | Yahoo! News) - US celebrities called for a boycott to take place Friday -- one of the busiest US shopping days -- to protest a grand jury's decision not to prosecute a police officer who fatally shot a black teen. Read more

Can White teachers be taught how to teach our children?

Source: ThinkStock

By Melinda Anderson
(Nov. 12, 2014 | Root.Com) - A North Carolina teacher tells students that killing all black people is on her bucket list if she only has 10 days to live. The principal of a middle school in Brooklyn, N.Y., promotes learning a foreign language to prospective students and their parents with a reminder that “if you don’t speak Spanish, you’re going to clean your own house.” And third-grade teachers at an Atlanta-area elementary school assign homework math problems about slavery, beatings and picking cotton. Read more

Youths take to social media to grieve Marion Barry, decry negative coverage

By Desmond R. Barnes
(Nov. 24, 2014 | Washington Informer via the New America Media) - Some are the children of D.C. employees who got their good government jobs after then-Mayor Marion Barry opened opportunities for blacks. Others had their first work experience in his summer jobs program. Many grew up seeing him move around the city — chatting up young athletes about going to college; talking to honor students about scholarships; advising troubled youths about getting back on track. Read more

Race, to the Finish

By Charles Blow
(Nov. 12, 2014 | The New York Times) - Last week, the economist and former Richard Nixon speechwriter Ben Stein went on Fox News and delivered a racial tirade completely detached from the the anchor’s line of questioning. Read more

What an uncensored letter to M.L.K. reveals

By Beverly Gage
(Nov. 11, 2014 | The New York Times) - The note is just a single sheet gone yellow with age, typewritten and tightly spaced. It’s rife with typos and misspellings and sprinkled with attempts at emending them. Clearly, some effort went into perfecting the tone, that of a disappointed admirer, appalled by the discovery of “hidious [sic] abnormalities” in someone he once viewed as “a man of character.” Read more

Chris Rock and Prince on 'SNL': What's the verdict?

(Nov. 2, 2014 | CNN) - Comedian Chris Rock delivered on his reputation for controversy as host of "Saturday Night Live" this weekend, but musical guest Prince is the one soaking up accolades for making history. Read more

Watching 'Dear White People' at Harvard

By Shereen Marisol Meraji
(Oct. 18, 2014 | NPR) - A new movie about race and identity is out in select theaters today. It's called Dear White People, and it's a satire set at a fictitious ivy league college. Or, as the promotional materials say, it's "about being a black face in a white place." Read more

CNN withdraws support of NABJ

(Oct. 17, 2014 | NABJ) - On Friday (Oct. 17) at the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), Board of Directors Meeting, President Bob Butler announced that long-time supporter CNN has withdrawn support of NABJ for the 2015 Convention & Career Fair. Read more

Call me back, Hollywood: What it's like to be a black woman trying to make it in TV

By Megan Angelo
(Sept. 30, 2014 | Glamour.Com) - There is a 15-foot picture of Kerry Washington on the wall of the ABC lot in Burbank, California—an ad for Scandal featuring the actress in full Olivia Pope terrified-gorgeous glory. Beneath the billboard is a stoplight, and beneath that stoplight, in a banged-up Honda Civic on a Wednesday this spring, is 22-year-old actress Diona Reasonover. She's late. Read more

Racial profiling: Black teen pepper sprayed by police in his pwn house

By Daryl Hannah
(Sept. 30, 2014 | DiversityInc.) - A North Carolina family is outraged at local police officers for racially profiling their teenage foster son and pepper spraying him, all while in their own home. Read more

Wrought in Rhimes’s image

By Alessandra Stanley
(Sept. 18, 2014 | The New York Times) - When Shonda Rhimes writes her autobiography, it should be called “How to Get Away With Being an Angry Black Woman.” On Thursday, Ms. Rhimes will introduce “How to Get Away With Murder,” yet another network series from her production company to showcase a powerful, intimidating black woman. Read more

Reaction:
- Shonda Rhimes Educates The New York Times On Their ‘Angry Black Woman’ Label (Source: BlackAmericaWeb.Com | Sept. 19, 2014)

Eddie Murphy returning to 'SNL' after 31-year absence

By Ryan Reed
(Jan. 30, 2015 | Rolling Stone) - Eddie Murphy became a comedy legend during his early Eighties run on Saturday Night Live. But he hasn't graced the show's iconic stage since hosting an episode on December 15th, 1984 – months after leaving the series during Season Nine – with bad blood souring the relationship over the years. Now Murphy is making his long-awaited return for the series' three-hour 40th anniversary special, scheduled for February 15th. Read more

Fox News raises alarm over college course about race

By Roque Planas
(Jan. 24, 2015 | The Huffington Post) - Fox News is raising alarm bells over an Arizona college course that studies whiteness. The network’s “Fox and Friends” show ran a segment Friday titled “Trouble with Schools,” criticizing an Arizona State University course called “U.S. Race Theory & the Problem of Whiteness,” portraying it as an attack on white people. The professor of the course, Lee Bebout, is white. Read more

Diversity in the classroom: How to solve the black male teacher shortage

By Tracy Jarrett
(Jan. 21, 2015 | NBC News) - America's K-12 students have never been more diverse, with students of color now outnumbering white students. But that diversity ends at the front of the classroom. Read more

Network TV is getting blacker but still has work to do

by David Bauder, Lynn Elber and Frazier Moore
(Jan. 20, 2015 | TheGrio.Com) - Kenya Barris, creator of ABC’s “black-ish,” was motivated to write the comedy about an African-American family’s efforts to honor its heritage in part by the unreality of what he grew up watching on television. Read more

Prez Obama addresses bias against young Black men with “The Queen of YouTube,” GloZell

(Jan. 23, 2015 | NewsOne) - As promised, GloZell Green, the green-lipped YouTube sensation infamous for her crazy video antics, spoke with president Barack Obama as part of his White House Initiative, the YouTube State of the YOUnion. Read more

Black men counter media perception with ‘DetermiNation’

By Saa'un Bell
A picture of divided versus united (Nov. 26, 2014 | Oakland Voices) - The grand jury decision in Ferguson to not indict police Officer Darren Wilson for the shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, has left the hearts of the African-American community reeling—nationwide, and in Oakland, sending the message that black lives do not matter. While many in Oakland continue to protest the death of Michael Brown, an opportune and much-needed collaboration between United Roots Oakland and the Urban Peace Movement “#Determined to…” media campaign sets out to change the bleak images and narratives of Oakland’s young, black men. The same images and narratives that put targets on their backs. Read more

‘Empire’ co-creator Lee Daniels: Homophobia is ‘Killing African American Women’

By Tim Kenneally
(Jan. 17, 2015 | The Wrap ) - CA 2015: Fox drama’s executive producer expounds on the damage of denial. Lee Daniels didn’t mince words during the panel for the freshman Fox drama “Empire” during the Television Critics Association press tour on Saturday, offering his frank thoughts on homophobia in the African American community, which he said is “killing African American women.” Read more

Survey: Few Blacks, Hispanics among top tech executives

By Jessica Guynn
(Nov. 14, 2014 | USA Today) - Missing on the management teams of major technology companies: Blacks and Hispanics. That's according to a new survey from the Rainbow PUSH Coalition. Read more

HBO developing African-American sibling comedy 'Bros'

By Andy Lewis
(Nov. 3, 2014 | The Hollywood Reporter) - HBO has some new Bros. The premium cable service is developing comedy Bros from writer Ben Cory Jones (Hand of God) and Hemingway Taylor Productions. The story centers on three African-American brothers — two straight, one gay and all very different — looking for love and happiness in Los Angeles. Bros is based on Hemingway Taylor's 12-minute presentation of Bros. Read more

Ben Kinchlow: Biased media deceive Black Americans

(Nov. 3, 2014 | Newsmax.Com) - The First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of the press is being trampled — and that has confused African American voters, says the Rev. Ben Kinchlow, former co-host of "The 700 Club," columnist for World Net Daily, and founder of Americans for Israel.

"Freedom of the press was designed so that there would be an educated population that could make intelligent decisions based on the facts," Kinchlow said Monday on "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV. Read more

Media historian Jinx Broussard talks about her research on
"African-American Foreign Correspondents" at Western Kentucky

By Haddy Badjie, Western Kentucky University

If you cannot watch the video clip, click here.

Laurence Fishburne on what ‘Black-ish’ means: ‘Two Words: Justin Bieber’

By Philip Cosores
(Oct. 28, 2014 | Radio.Com) - Laurence Fishburne, Oscar nominated actor who has appeared in The Matrix and Boyz N the Hood, is starring and executive producing a new sitcom called Black-ish. Fishburne appeared on The View to promote it with fellow New York natives, Whoopie Goldberg and Rosie Perez. Read More

SNL adds black woman to cast from writers room

Photo Credit: ABC News via AP

(Oct. 21, 2014 | ABC Newsvia AP) - "Saturday Night Live" is giving its on-screen diversity another boost. NBC says the comic institution is adding Leslie Jones to its cast. The African-American comedian wins her on-camera role after serving as a writer on the show last season. Read more

Gabrielle Simpson: "[BLACK, FRESH & 20-SOMETHING] The young woman bringing diversity to NBC"

Photo Credit: Iona College

By Melanie Yvette
(Oct. 14, 2014 | Ebony) - It is our obsession here at EBONY: finding the young, fresh talent of our culture making major strides in their lives. From entrepreneurship to holding CEO positions, there’s nothing better than seeing our youth grasping leadership spots. This week, we highlight Gabrielle N. Simpson, director of communications for NBC Universal, who in her everyday work is striving to help tell the stories of people around the world. Read more

Author Cornel West among the protestors arrested from a Ferguson protest rally

(Oct. 13, 2014 | Daily News) - More than 50 people were arrested, including author and activist Cornel West, at a rally outside Ferguson police headquarters where some protesters used bullhorns to read the names of people killed by cops nationwide. Read more

Cox Enterprises announces national partnership with 100 black men of America, Inc.

(Oct. 14, 2014 | PRNewswire) - Cox Enterprises today announced a national diversity partnership with 100 Black Men of America, Inc. (the 100). Through the partnership, Cox will support the organization's Collegiate 100 (C100) program that engages African-American college students and prepares them for educational and economic success. The partnership includes each of Cox Enterprises' major divisions (Cox Communications, Cox Media Group and Cox Automotive). Read more

Sagging pants and the long history of 'dangerous' street fashion

By WRKF 89.3 Editor
(Sept.. 12, 2014 | WRKF 89.3) - Mary Sue Rich finally had enough. The council member from Ocala, Fla., was tired of seeing the young people in her town wearing their pants low and sagging, and successfully pushed to prohibit the style on city-owned property. It became law in July. Violators face a $500 fine or up to six months in jail. Read more

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African Americans