(Akiit.com) Statistics show disturbing rates of absent black fathers, but a new book depicts the nuance behind the numbers. Ta-Nehisi Coates grew up in the type of family unit that causes census takers to develop stomach ulcers. His father, Paul, was a bit of a free spirit, which is how ...
(Akiit.com) A conversation made her mind up… I am a black Republican. I have a confession to make. I am an Obama “girl.” Most black Republicans who support John McCain won’t tell you this — but if Barack Obama is the nominee for the Democratic ticket, they will go into ...
(Akiit.com) Clinton and Obama’s divvy up of North Carolina and Indiana between them further deepens the two perils the Democrats face. One is that neither heavy hitter can deliver the knockout punch that the Democrats desperately need to get on with the business of mounting a united front against McCain. ...
(Akiit.com) Barack Obama’s success shows that the ceiling has risen for African-Americans. But many are still too close to the floor… WHEN Roland Fryer was about 15, a friend asked him what he would be doing when he was 30. He said he would probably be dead. It was a ...
(Akiit.com) You’ve heard of resume inflation? You’ve heard of people who lie about having Ph.D.s or Ivy League pedigrees in order to get ahead? The world of thug culture has its own perverse equivalent, in which middle-class men with minor legal transgressions exaggerate their bad behavior, claiming to be hard-core ...
(Akiit.com) For weeks, Delores Smith, membership coordinator at the Madame C. J. Walker Theater in Indianapolis, has e-mailed and called Sen. Barack Obama’s representatives, hoping he’ll hold a campaign event at the 937-seat theater. It is, after all, named in honor of one of the nation’s first black millionaires. And ...
(Akiit.com) NEW YORK, NY – Nearly 60 percent of African-American children cannot swim, almost twice the figure for white children, according to a first-of-its-kind survey which USA Swimming hopes will strengthen its efforts to lower minority drowning rates and draw more blacks into the sport. Stark statistics underlie the initiative ...
(Akiit.com) At the Broadhurst Theater on Broadway, an all-black cast, lead by the inimitable James Earl Jones, is re-interpreting Tennessee Williams in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.” Around the corner, at the Belasco Theater, another all-black cast is playing African-American, Dutch and German characters in the autobiographical rock musical ...
(Akiit.com) Ten years ago, Bill Cosby’s son Ennis and Michael Jordan’s father both died. Entertainer M.C. Hammer filed bankruptcy, and Malcolm X’s grandson ignited a fatal fire. Les Brown divorced Gladys Knight, and the NBA’s Juwon Howard went into a treatment center. Actor Howard Rollins (age 46) died, and Yaphet ...
(Akiit.com) Whoever on Team Obama keeps feeding into Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s seeming compulsive need to speak out on the Reverend Jeremiah Wright should get the swift boot. When Wright went on his latest public and media tear, Obama should have simply issued a statement saying this: Wright is ...
(Akiit.com) A few years ago, Robert Downey Jr. was known for abusing drugs, doing jail time and skipping out on rehab sessions. Next week he’s starring in one of the summer’s biggest movies, “Iron Man.” Downey is not the only celebrity to bounce back from hard times with the law. ...
(Akiit.com) Even before the first witness was called in the Sean Bell trial, a defense attorney for one of the three officers charged with gunning down Bell flatly said that he thought his client and the other two officers would be acquitted in the killing of Bell. This was not ...