African Americans news stories on Newser

Menacing Pit Bull Led Zimmerman to Get Gun

Mary Papenfuss — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 07:47:29 CDT

In a bizarre twist in a killing that has come to stand for deadly racial violence, it turns out that the great grandfather of Trayvon Martin's killer was African-Peruvian. George Zimmerman was generally regarded as trustworthy by his racially mixed Florida neighbors, who asked him to launch a community watch...

Acura Apologizes for 'Not Too Dark' Casting Call

Dustin Lushing — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 16:00:05 CDT

Acura apologized this week over a casting document for its Super Bowl commercial that requested a black actor who is "not too dark." The casting sheet had specified: "Nice Looking, friendly. Not too dark." reports TMZ . An actor angry at being passed over for the commercial, which starred Jerry Seinfeld,...

Mixed-Race Americans Must Identify as Black

Mark Russell — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 14:44:58 CDT

Interracial marriages may be on the rise in America, but with racial problems still so prevalent, mixed-race black people have an "ethical obligation" to identify as black, writes Thomas Chatterton Williams in the New York Times . Williams says he is grateful to live in modern America, where he has married...

Black Students Face More Arrests Than Whites: US

Matt Cantor — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 17:40:05 CST

African-American students are arrested much more frequently than whites in America's large public schools, according to the government's largest-ever study of the subject. Among school systems with more than 50,000 students, 35% of arrests involved African-Americans, though they represent just 24% of the student body. White students represented 21%...

Falling From Favor: The Term 'African American'

Mark Russell — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 13:29:59 CST

African Americans are increasingly shunning, well, the very term "African American," with many just preferring "black" amid increasingly complex origins and loyalties, reports the AP . "African American" rose to popularity in the 1980s, thanks in large part of Jesse Jackson's 1988 run for the presidency, but it's America that looms...

All-White Urban Neighborhoods 'Effectively Extinct'

Kate Schwartz — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 07:53:23 CST

As America prepares to celebrate Black History Month, revelations both encouraging and discouraging from the Manhattan Institute: A report released yesterday finds that the segregation of blacks in America's cities has hit its lowest point since 1910, thanks in part to the rise of black suburbanization, changes in the law,...

Best Black President? Still Might Be Clinton

John Johnson — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 13:18:06 CST

When Bill Clinton got tagged as the nation's "first black president," L. Douglas Wilder—the first black governor of Virginia—never quite bought it. When Barack Obama got elected, Wilder figured the US finally had the real deal. Three years in, however, Wilder isn't so sure that Obama has been...

Black Atheists Dare to 'Come Out'

Neal Colgrass — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 17:12:03 CST

African American atheism is not exactly a time-worn tradition. It's so rare, in fact, that black atheists risk losing friends and family, and having a much smaller pool of potential life partners, if they dare speak up, the New York Times reports. Washington resident Ronnelle Adams first told his grandmother...

Glenn Beck: Let's Go Back to 'Colored'

Mark Russell — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 06:00:00 CDT

Glenn Beck thinks it's time to ditch "African American" and go back to using "black" or even "colored," or so he said on his radio program earlier this week, reports the Cleveland Leader . "Didn't you feel ridiculously stupid everywhere in Africa, in Europe, in South America, in Jerusalem, when you...