From The Grio – By now you’ve heard the comment. A noted PGA Tour veteran made an off-color joke about Tiger Woods, referencing fried chicken. After the incident, and the subsequent backlash, the professional backtracked, said he meant the comments in jest, and claimed there was no racist intent. The golf and national media examined the…
From THE GRIO – It’s been 82 days. Eighty-one days since the body of Marco McMillian, a black mayoral candidate, who was also gay, was found on the Mississippi River levee, unclothed. After 82 days of utter apathy from our collective community—the black community, the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community, our allies, and…
From The Grio – Social media has given a powerful voice to people of color, complementing an often one-dimensional mainstream when it comes to representing controversial racial issues. Specifically, African-American users on Twitter have become a particularly powerful force. Termed “Black Twitter” (or #BlackTwitter), this networked group of users has emerged as the 21st century extension of…
From The Grio — Nineteen-year-old Tarikuwa Lemma is a survivor, of an international adoption scandal. When she was 13, she was effectively sold from her native Ethiopia to an American family. The corrupt “adoption agency” convinced her father, who was a widow, that Tarikuwa and her younger sisters were headed to the U.S. as part…
From The Grio — Immigration reform, and the politics surrounding it, have become synonymous with Hispanic-Americans. Never mind the fact that the vast majority of Latinos in America are already citizens, born in the United States, and that not every immigrant — documented or otherwise — is Hispanic. The easy stereotypes make for simplified storytelling….
From The Grio – Fake drugs for tuberculosis and malaria kill around 700,000 people each year in less-developed countries, according to a report by the International Policy Network. In one shocking case, over the course of three months, 84 Nigerian children died from kidney failure brought on by the industrial solvent diethylene glycol in teething syrup….
From The Grio – “We don’t raise boys to be men,” said former NFL quarterback turned feminist Don McPherson. “We raise them not to be women, or gay men.” That brutally honest statement delivered at the March 8th launch of “Ring the Bell” — a bold campaign developed by global human rights organization Breakthrough to secure “concrete,…
From The Grio – Many years ago, I tried this crash diet that consisted largely of eating boiled eggs. I was a happy high school cheerleader with the right height and “wrong” size. I was a sturdy base who wanted desperately to be one of the petite girls on the team who were whimsically tossed…
From The Grio — As with Black History Month, the focus on already well-known figures has been an ongoing criticism of Woman’s History Month. When it comes to black women, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Ida B. Wells and Rosa Parks are on repeat. What makes these much-needed theme months thrive, however, is the spirit of…
Last week, the National Rifle Association opened a cynical new front in the debate about gun rights in America with its campaign to promote gun ownership to minority and low-income urban communities. NRANews.com, the Association’s official website, introduced a partnership with Facebook sensation Colion Noir, a young, African-American “urban gun enthusiast” and the first of a…
