“A few years ago when Jamie Foxx, while accepting a groundbreaking Oscar, thanked him grandmother for beating him and keeping him straight, white folks went crazy. But black people completely understood. We know how our mamas, grandmamas, and aunties beat us with love — and then sent us outside to walk it off!”

More here.

Philadelphia’s superintendent Arlene Ackerman said that labeling the jumpings as a race crime is premature but the accusations, bruises and protests beg to differ.  Immigrant Asian students with thick accents and few years in America say they have been beaten up because of their ethnicity at South Philadelphia High School.  Ten students have been suspended, six African-American and four Asian students, and the School District says more may be suspended after an investagation.

However the Asian American Legal Defense and Education fund have filed a civil rights complaint against the Philadelphia School District. 

The Asian students and other students at South Philly High School said the Asian students’ complaints of physical and verbal harassment were mostly pushed to the side and security guards did little to prevent fights. 

Some reports have said that Thursday’s brawl, that led to the students’ walk out, stemmed from a wheel chaired African-American student being jumped by a group of Asian male students.

NFL wide receiver Donte Stallworth pleaded guilt to DUI manslaughterfor driving drunk in Miami Beach on an early March 2009 morning and killing 59 year old construction worker Mario Reyes.  A sobriety test showed an alcohol level of .126 from Stallworth (a lot higher than the .08 Florida limit) after the fatal accident and reports claim there were traces of marijuana in the wide receiver’s system as well.  Stallworth and his lawyers struck an undisclosed financial deal with Mr. Reyes’ family.  Stallworth last played for the Cleveland Browns and is still currently on their roster. 

The prosecuters provided a surveillance video was shown of Mario Reyes running across the highway to catch the bus right after clocking out of work when Donte Stallworth struck him with his Bentley after he had spent his night partying at a night club.  Reyes, a Cuban American that immigrated to Miami in his teens to later work as a crane operator, left behind a wife and 15 year old daughter.

Stallworth was sentenced to 30 days of jail, 10 years of probation, 2 years of house arrest, 1,000 hours of community service and a lifetime driving license suspension that after 5 years will be reduced.  From all reports, the Reyes family is okay with the length of sentencing of the NFLer.  Stallworth said  in a statement after his sentencing,

“I urge NFL fans not to judge NFL players or me based on my tragic lapse in judgment, I am a good person who did a bad thing. I will use the period of my suspension to reflect, fulfill my obligations, and use this experience to make a positive impact on the lives of those who look up to NFL players.”

The NFL offices also brought a judgement to their employee’s action and suspended the 29 year old to a one season suspension without pay (that takes roughly $745,000 away from him).  Although an ESPN reports that Stallworth had already signed a 7 year $35 million contract and was set to receive a $4.75 million signing bonus that Friday before the accident. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell issued this statement,

“In that respect, you [Donte Stallworth] are clearly guilty of conduct detrimental to the integrity of and public confidence in the NFL.  Despite a repeated emphasis on the importance of avoiding driving under the influence of alcohol, you chose to drive under circumstances where you were legally impaired. Your conduct endangered yourself and others, leading to the death of an innocent man. The NFL and NFL players must live with the stain that you have placed on their reputations.”

On August 11,2009 according to Miami court papers Stallworth and his lawyers applied and received a revision to his house arrest and be allowed to train with a coach at a local high school to “maintain an elevated degree of physical conditioning.”.

courtesy of Google

 The Fox hit cartoon has a second episode banned that dealt with abortion.  Controversy has hit the newly Emmy nominated comedy show.  Fox says, “”[We] will not air the Partial Terms of Endearment episode of Family Guy, but we fully support the producers’ right to make the episode and distribute it in whatever way they want,”. 

The creator of Family Guy, Seth MacFarlanee-mailed in response, “I completely support whatever decision Fox makes. We were allowed to take a crack at this controversial story and that’s enough for me.”" There are plans to included the un-aired episode on a future Family Guy DVD.

Sources:

here and here

“Under the best of circumstances, his [Henry Louis "Skip" Gates] trip back from China was long – at least 13 hours – and tiring. He has a further complicating travel issue. One leg is shorter than the other and he’s had hip replacement surgery. He frequently walks with a cane.

So when Gates got back to his Cambridge house, he was probably ready to just flop on his bed. Instead, after he managed to get in the house and get his bags carried in with the help of a driver, he came face to face with the last straw – a police officer pressing him for identification and tagging him as a possible intruder in his own home.

It is a chain of events that could be comical, except for the fact that Skip Gates, frustrated and tired and angry, got arrested – for being frustrated, tired, angry and, he says, for being black.”

– Fannie Flono of the CharoletteObserver.com

“A prosecutor is dropping a charge against prominent Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. after Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the city’s police department recommended that the matter not be pursued.

Charles Ogletree, a professor at Harvard Law School who is Gates’ lawyer in this case, told CNN on Tuesday that Gates — the director of Harvard’s W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research – had returned from China on Thursday to his Cambridge home and discovered his front door jammed

He opened his back door with his key and tried unsuccessfully from inside his home to open the front door. Eventually, Gates and his driver forced the door open from the outside, Ogletree said.

The professor was inside for several minutes when a police officer, Sgt. James Crowley, appeared at his steps and asked him to step outside, the lawyer said.

According to his lawyer, Gates told the officer he lived there and showed him his Massachusetts driver’s license and Harvard University identification card. The officer followed him into his house and said he had received a report of a possible break-in, the lawyer said. Gates grew frustrated that the officer was continuing to question him in his home and asked for the officer’s name and badge number, Ogletree said.

The police report offers a different account of the incident.

Gates refused to step outside to speak with the officer, the police report said, and when Crowley told Gates that he was investigating a possible break-in, Gates opened the front door and exclaimed, “Why, because I’m a black man in America?” the report said.

“While I was led to believe that Gates was lawfully in the residence, I was quite surprised and confused with the behavior he exhibited toward me,” he said, according to the report.

The report said Gates initially refused to show the officer identification, but eventually produced a Harvard identification card, prompting Crowley to radio for Harvard University Police.

A prosecutor is dropping a charge against prominent Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. after Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the city’s police department recommended that the matter not be pursued.

Gates followed the officer outside and continued to accuse him of racial bias, the report said. After Crowley warned the professor twice that he was becoming disorderly, the officer wrote he arrested Gates for “loud and tumultuous behavior in a public space.”

Ogletree said the professor was “very frustrated” but never touched or pointed at the officer.

He was released from police custody Thursday evening after spending four hours at the police station, Ogletree said.”

      — CNN

Dave Chappelle (up to the first 58 seconds in particular) speaks about a very similar event.

Domestic violence, double standards and celebrity justice were in heavy discussion through out the Chris Brown domestic violence arrest in the media and with my own family and friends, but what about the young man’s fashion sense during those turbulent months? 

He looked great in his grey suit and silk fat tie during his first apperance in court.  He looked somber in his all black sweater and he looked a little foolish (and maybe a bit arrogant) in his “OOPS!” diamond necklace days after his plea bargain.   I will admit his public apology, via youtube and other Internet sites, was almost outdone by that Kool-Aid red chef shirt he had on.