Share According to a new CBS/New York Times poll, perceptions of race relations are at an all time high. They say: For the first time in CBS News polling history, a majority of blacks are casting race relations in the United States in a positive light. It was also found however that: Despite the increasingly [...]
Share Over at Model Minority’s blog, there is an excellent posting – entitled “Gentrification Has Nothing to do with white hipsters”. Model Minority raises an excellent point, and one I’ve been thinking about ever since I moved to Harlem where there are many mixed feelings about the gentrification of the area and where a battle [...]
Share Racial over-sensitivity? In this story, a company that made a special edition Obama doll which sprouted grass from its head (see picture) was shocked to find out that the doll has been pulled from the shelves at Walgreens stores in Chicago and Tampa after customers complained about it. Apparently some people thought that the grass [...]
Share Yet another book on how “The Age of Obama” is changing things for minorities in the UK and the US. This is quite an interesting one (note: I’ve only read a sample chapter and not the whole thing) and based on research by Harvard’s Robert Putnam (in conjunction with Manchester University) who says that [...]
Share I have written a soon-to-be released essay on how the UK can use the momentum from Obama’s presidency to progress. Watch this space for that. It will be interesting to see how the Obama effect will be harnessed and what its actual effects, beyond symbolism, are in the UK. But according to a new [...]
Share When I was on CNN in January, the anchor Jim Clancey asked me an interesting question. He said that similarly to Obama, I have an international background (my parents are Nigerian, I’m a first generation born Briton who was raised in London and have lived in S Africa – all interesting hot spots for [...]
Share Ok – so let’s talk about race…. since Eric Holder suggested it! Do you think that it matters whether or not we talk about race? Does talking about it only serve to highlight divisions and tensions? Would society be better off not talking about it at all? Is talking about it just a way [...]
Share Last month, the Attorney General Eric Holder said that when it comes to matters of race, America is a ‘nation of cowards’. It was a bold statement – I can just imagine the furore that would be caused if someone as high ranking as him in England had made the same comment – and [...]
Share Over at Politico, there is an interesting article entitled “Blacks, Whites hear Obama differently.” The basic premise of the article is that Obama’s speech and mannerisms are coded in such a way that he can do and say things that black people will recognize and feel familiar and comfortable with, but that will slip under [...]
Share Bobby Jindal’s lacklustre address last week may perhaps have been the death knell for his future as the great hope for the GOP. His national debut, which has been badly received by Republicans and Democrats alike, perhaps also gave the Republicans yet another well-needed lesson in how they use a politician’s minority status (in [...]
