Free Republic

Same-sex marriages went forward Monday in Alabama, for the most part, notwithstanding an effort by the Chief Justice of the state’s Supreme Court to prevent probate judges from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples: BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Amid conflicting signals from federal courts and the chief justice of Alabama’s Supreme Court, some Alabama counties began granting marriage licenses to same-sex couples on Monday in a legal showdown with echoes of the battles over desegregation in the 1960s. In major county seats like Birmingham, Montgomery and Huntsville, gay couples lined up outside courthouses as they opened, and emerged smiling, licenses in...

According to the latest census data, African Americans make up just over 13% of the US population. That means out of the 317 million people living in the USA, there are about 41 million blacks -- just over the total population of California. However, looking at the popular culture you'd never know that. Black music dominates popular music. Black culture is how most people define "cool." And most of all, what might offend blacks dominates popular culture, media, education, and entertainment. Fred Reed writes:

Referee Ed Hochuli referred to replay official Tom Sifferman by his nickname “Jungle Boy,” which was heard on the in-stadium microphone during the Cardinals-Panthers NFC wild-card game Saturday in Charlotte, N.C.

“No,” the president answered. “I actually think that it’s probably in its day-to-day interactions less racially divided.” Inskeep also asked the president about working with a Congress where both houses are controlled by Republicans. Obama offered a familiar answer. “Now you’ve got Republicans in a position where it’s not enough for them simply to grind the wheels of Congress to a halt and then blame me,” he said.

What follows is for the benefit of one William James O'Reilly Jr. -- "Bill" to his fans. Last summer, Mr. O'Reilly, a pundit for Fox "News," spent time talking about white privilege and his contention that no such thing exists. He debated this with colleague Megyn Kelly, and sparred about it with Jon Stewart of "The Daily Show." Part of Mr. O'Reilly's reasoning is that because Asian-Americans (according to him) make more money and are better educated than whites, what we really should be talking about is "Asian privilege."

WASHINGTON -- Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) on Sunday criticized what he described as lopsided coverage of the situation in Ferguson, Missouri, calling on the media to stop focusing on racially disproportionate police forces and pay more attention to black people killing one another. "I find it very disappointing that you're not discussing the fact that 93 percent of blacks in America are killed by other blacks. We're talking about the exception here," Giuliani said on NBC's "Meet The Press," referring to the Aug. 9 killing of Michael Brown, an unarmed African-American teenager, in Ferguson by Darren...

<p>On Tuesday, Slate and everyone else posted a video of a woman who is harassed more than 100 times by men as she walks around New York City for ten hours. More specifically, it’s a video of a young white woman who is harassed by mostly black and Latino men as she walks around New York City for ten hours. The one dude who turns around and says, “Nice,” is white, but the guys who do the most egregious things—like the one who harangues her, “Somebody’s acknowledging you for being beautiful! You should say thank you more,” or the one who follows her down the street too closely for five whole minutes—are not.</p>

White voters are more likely to say they support voter ID laws if primed with a picture of an African American voting, versus a White person voting, or no picture at all, according to a recent study. In order to examine the way bias might play a role in support for voter ID laws, researchers with the University of Delaware’s Center for Political Communication conducted an online survey in 2012 of a nationally representative sample of 1,436 adults.

“Dear White People, the minimum requirement of black friends needed to not seem racist has been raised to two….Sorry, your ‘weed man’ Tyrone does not count!” Just like that, the upcoming Dear White People movie moved into highly controversial territory. The trailers (both standard and the recent red band) touch on scenarios that call out the casual racism still acted out in a supposedly “post-racial” America. Although the statements and questions raised by the lead character Samantha White may seem outlandish to some white Americans, for far too many African Americans her rants represent everyday reality. Here are some things...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Mothers who give birth in areas with higher concentrations of African-Americans are less likely to get breastfeeding support on maternity wards than mothers in other communities, a new study shows. Breastfeeding provides well-documented health benefits to infants and their mothers. But African-American women are about 16 percent less likely to nurse their newborns than white women, according to research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

President Barack Obama on Friday blamed dysfunction in Congress on a Republican Party he said is captive to an ideologically rigid, unproductive and cynical faction, urging like-minded Democrats to show up for November's midterm elections. Addressing Democratic donors at a fundraiser in Rhode Island and another in New York, Obama said Republicans had realized that blocking all progress led Americans to become cynical about government. Republicans consider that "a pretty good thing" because they don't believe in government to begin with, Obama said. "It doesn't have to be that way," Obama said during a barbecue in Purchase, New York. "There...

California history textbooks will now be asked to cover "the significance of President Barack Obama's election," under a law signed this week by Gov. Jerry Brown. requires California's Instructional Quality Commission "to consider including, and recommending for adoption by the state board, instruction on the election of President Barack Obama and the significance of the United States electing its first African American President, as appropriate." The author, Democratic Assemblyman Chris Holden, said in a statement: "We want to make sure that future generations understand that the election of our nation's first African American president was a historic step in the...

“You go to all of these damn courts, and there’s no white people,” one defendant, slated to appear before a municipal court in St. Louis County, recently said. “In Dellwood, Ferguson, basically, in North County, if you’re black, they’re going to stop you,” the resident said according to a new report on policing in the area. For residents of Ferguson, Missouri, and surrounding municipalities in St. Louis County, it’s not surprising that racial tensions have boiled over. In a town of 21,000, two-thirds of the residents are African-American, and many reports have highlighted a fraught relationship between Ferguson's residents and...

INDIANAPOLIS - An eye-opening art exhibit on gun violence is about to open at the Central Library downtown. Artist James Pate and exhibit organizers expect the art to spark some serious conversations because of what it shows. "It just makes you think a little bit and sparks your thought process," said Chaz Holder. Holder is one of a group of Crispus Attucks High School students who got a first look at the provocative exhibit. The students' visit was also training for grown-ups who will serve as exhibit tour guides. "The hope is to engage the youth in the community in...

Saturday marks the 66th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima – devastating acts that helped bring World War Two to a close. (Three days after Hiroshima, Nagasaki was similarly battered). The attacks – the only time nuclear weapons have ever been used in world history to date – killed tens of thousands of people and shocked the planet with the scale of their destruction. There has been much controversy over the decision to bomb Japan and some speculation that it might have been racially motivated (given that the U.S. military did not drop such weapons on European civilian targets)....

Of the hundreds of panels available at Comic-Con, which drew to a close on Sunday, none are more respected than the long-running Black Panel, hosted by the comic book creator and Milestone Media co-founder Michael Davis. Unlike most of the other panels at Comic-Con, the Black Panel has nothing to sell, and features guests who also have nothing to promote. Instead, it is a discussion between audience and panel members about black culture, a way for prominent figures in African American entertainment to reach out to those who hope to emulate their paths to success. Davis started the panel in...

Yep, the United States is so racist that Kanye West was able to become a multi-multi millionaire here. He probably does need to travel more to find out how little racism affects success in the United States compared to most of the rest of the world. This reminds me of when Johnny Depp said he and his family were moving to Paris, France because the United States was too violent. Then the reality of Muslim riots in Paris with many cars being burned each night set in. Remember that? Yeah, after a few years Depp moved back to the States....

The prospect of electing an intemperate Tea Party candidate who was openly nostalgic for Confederate days was so repellent to many black voters in Mississippi that they did a remarkable thing on Tuesday, crossing party lines to help give the Republican Senate nomination to Thad Cochran, in office for 36 years. Now it’s time for Mr. Cochran to return the favor by supporting a stronger Voting Rights Act and actively working to reduce his party’s extreme antigovernment policies.

Why Iggy Azalea’s music is so popular and problematic.hen asked about Forbes’ claim that hip-hop is run by a white, blond, Australian rapper named Iggy Azalea, incumbent queen bee Nicki Minaj laughed hysterically. The financial magazine may be qualified to calculate the $250 million valuation of Nicki’s Myx Fusions Moscato wine coolers, Nicki reasoned, but only the hip-hop community can bequeath the throne to Iggy. One week later, Iggy Azalea became the only artist since the 1964 Beatles to have her first two singles occupy the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and the fourth female emcee to hit...

Both common sense and a bunch of social-psychological literature suggest that when resources are scarce, folks tend to get more territorial and possessive, to stick with people whom they view as members of their in-groups more tightly than they usually would. An interesting new study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences used face-morphing to show that white people, in one experiment at least, actually perceive black people differently when primed to think about situations in which resources are scarce. The study mostly revolved around getting a group of white respondents to react to a range of faces generated...