The Paris Hilton saga is only news because the famous, privileged rich kid got off when so many people arrested for similar violations would be rotting in jail for much longer than 45 days, and certainly wouldn’t be released after serving only a few hours because they were crying to mommy.

But the real story of this Hilton soap opera may be WHY she was let go in the first place.

According to this report on www.news.com.au (from Agence France-Presse), Hilton’s billionaire grandfather donated to Sheriff Lee Baca’s re-election campaign.

Was Paris’ release the payback?
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Talk about poor timing.

Russell Simmons released his book, Do You: Laws To Access The Power In You To Achieve Happiness And Success, right as the argument about hip hop’s often misogynist lyrics reached a fever pitch.

The result? He is answering (or dodging) more questions about hip hop lyrics during his book tour than he is being asked about his book.

So when the hip hop mogul sat down recently with NPR’s Farai Chideya, he got so flustered she thought he was going to walk out.
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In an article for the online magazine, Slate, former NBA player, Paul Shirley, currently in the Spanish pro league, recounts the lonliness of the white American basketball player.

Though he makes a great living playing ball in “the second-best basketball league in the world”, Shirley complains about the racism that he has encountered in the NBA. He believed other players didn’t respect his game specifically because he was white.

Of course, Shirley is not best known for his basketball skills. According to his listing in Wikipedia, Shirley’s biggest claim to fame was the online diary he kept as the Phoenix Suns’ twelfth man on their 2004-2005 playoff run, and the blog he writes for ESPN.com. He was cut at the end of that season, and failed to make the Minnesota Timberwolves roster at the beginning of this season. Ironically, Shirley mentioned the $10 million, 5-year contract of white Timberwolf Mark Madsen as the reason he was released.

Paul Shirley offers an interesting perspective on what life is like as a racial minority. White Americans currently make up only 6 percent of NBA players (75 percent are African-Americans and 19 percent are foreigners). Though the winners of the last three MVP titles are of European descent, they aren’t white Americans (two-time winner Steve Nash is Canadian and this year’s MVP, Dirk Nowitski, is German). According to Shirley, this is a problem for white American men who aren’t believed to be as talented as Black and foreign players.
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The objectification of women has been a hot topic here and elsewhere lately. Let’s face it. From the adult dancer/college student/single mother who accused Duke lacrosse players of rape to the Rutgers Women’s Basketball Team to nearly every song on urban radio and every video on BET, women are viewed by society as sexual objects.

But in an era of Girls Gone Wild, video vixens, strip clubs in every city, Internet porn, King, Maxim, Playboy, Hustler, etc., how much responsibility do women have for objectifying themselves? By choosing to bare their assets for money, attention or both are they seizing the power or are they allowing themselves to be sexual puppets to male desire?

In an article on Alternet, adult entertainer turned author Sarah Katherine Lewis confronts the question from a feminist standpoint, “If a woman chooses to objectify herself — shedding her clothes to obtain power through money — is she helping to eliminate gender inequality or simply degrading herself?”
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A Pew Reseach Center survey recently found that viewers of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report with Stephen Colbert were just as knowledgable as readers of major newspapers and much more knowledgable than viewers of Fox News. We know what this says about Fox, but what does it say about mainstream newspapers if “fake news” shows on Comedy Central match their quality? Presumably readers of The Michigan Citizen weren’t surveyed.

Stewart and Colbert haven’t gone without criticism though, and until recently their most glaring offense has been a lack of racial diversity among the casts. Colbert’s contest to find “a new black friend” was really stupid, but the Daily Show has followed through with the solid casting of Aasif Madvi as its Senior Iraqi Corespondent, and Larry Wilmore as the show’s Senior Black Corespondent.

On the May 3 “fake newscast”, Wilmore offered a frank, but hilarious analysis of the “Stop Snitchin’” trend that is growing among hip hop artists and the greater Black community. According to Wilmore there is hope for the inner city through gentrification.

I’ve written about it… time and time again… I’ve beaten it into the ground.

Hip Hop and Don Imus… the ruiners of the Black Community…

Yet, EVERYONE is still talking about it… The Hip Hop Summit Action Network (HSAN) held a meeting and released what I hate to admit is a meaningless statement… Bleep the words “b***h”, “h*e” and “N****r” on radio edits of songs…

Um, don’t they already bleep those words?

They don’t bleep “Brain”, “Dome”, “Crack”, “Coke”, “Dope”, “Drugs” or “Guns” - all words that, while they are not considered curse words, are indicative of problems in our community. And don’t think that just because you tell these rappers that they can’t say certain words that you are affecting change.

These are rappers we are talking about here. They got a made up phrase, “Bling-Bling”, into the Oxford Dictionary. They will just make up a new word that means the same as the old word. Before you know it, your four year-old will be running around with a new phrase that perplexes you.

MC Lyte says that hip hop owes women an apology. So does my friend Chuck, the Co-Founder of Allhiphop.com. I agree. If someone was always talking bad about me, and people like me, I would start feeling a little bad about myself. In some ways, I guess I do.

And yet, I’m not blameless. I can’t express how many times my best friends and I have called each other “B***h” and “H*e”. I mean, I am pretty sure that I have called someone that I love a “nappy headed ho” because I thought it was funny.

I don’t anymore.

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What’s up with these ‘R&B stars’ and young GIRLS?

This girl Akon’s dancing with on stage is only 14 years old and it’s no reason to ‘dance’ like that in the 1st place. Akon is on the list, very long list of disturbed stars. Eddie Murphy, Mike Jackson, R Kelly, Chuck Berry, and now Akon.

This link is not for the faint of heart. Please be warned Akon’s rather sick.

Google Video

YouTube

The Don Imus Incident brought out a lot of anger toward Hip Hop. In reality hip hop culture plays a very small role in the Imus controversy - Don Imus probably isn’t a fan of Snoop Dogg, and most Black folks didn’t know who he was until the controversy erupted - but his remarks inflamed the long standing debate that similar language has gotten out of hand in popular music.

Oprah even got into the act by devoting two shows to a town hall meeting where Russell Simmons and Ben Chavis (representing The Hip Hop Summit Action Network), joined by Common and Warner Music exec Kevin Lyle, were confronted by a host of detractors including longtime hip hop-hater columnist Stanley Crouch and a group of Spellman college students who appeared via satellite. The hip hop panel promised to convene a summit with the corporate music industry to discuss the problem and develop concrete solutions. That summit, held at the home of Warner Music’s Lyor Cohen, ended with no press conference and no statement about what was or was not accomplished. And no one is surprised.

The corporate media and the major labels who market the small percentage of music that is heard on most radio and video outlets should be held responsible for the content that they push on the public. Bay-area emcee Paris put it best in a post on GuerrillaFunk.com when he said:

The argument is often made by Russell Simmons and others that rappers are poets who simply report on what they feel and their surroundings, and that they shouldn’t be censored. As an emcee, on that point we partially agree — we shouldn’t be censored. But balance between the negative and positive needs to be provided, and it currently isn’t.

Most artistic integrity is questionable at best. My understanding is that artists are supposed to express what they believe in at all costs (if not, there’s work at the post office). But most don’t, and they mold their approaches to making music based on what they perceive major labels wanting. If Def Jam or Interscope or any of these other large culture-defining companies issued a blanket decree that they would only support material and artists with positive messages then 99% of those making music now would switch up to accommodate. That’s real talk.

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I don’t use my mobile phone to access the Internet, so that may be why I haven’t become inundated with mobile ads yet.

But according to Business Week, if you are surfing on your cellular, you may begin seeing more commercials on your phone. Advertisers are gearing up to use targeted mobile ads in a big way. (more…)

Terry McMillan is suing her ex-husband, Jonathan Plummer, for $40 million after their much publicized and bitter 2005 divorce.

Their romance had been the subject of McMillan’s best-seller How Stella Got Her Groove Back and the movie of the same name. Imagine McMillan’s surprise when her husband told her he was gay.

According to Black America Web, the lawsuit claims Jamaican native Plummer only married McMillan to gain US citizenship.

McMillan’s allegations include emotional distress, invasion of privacy and placing her in a “false light” to harm her professionally and personally. She also claimed that Plummer violated a restraining order by calling her to speak with her son.

“Hell hath no fury…”

Black America Web

Was Judge Robert Mandelbaum attempting to teach Naomi Campbell some humility by sentencing her to janitorial duty at the New York City Sanitation Department?

Of course.

From The New York Times:

Ms. Campbell pleaded guilty in January to a misdemeanor charge, acknowledging that she had lobbed a cellphone and hit her maid, Ana Scolavino, on the head. Ms. Campbell was ordered to pay Ms. Scolavino’s medical expenses, $363, attend a two-day anger-management seminar and do five days of community service, of which yesterday was Day 1.

The 36 year-old supermodel has some infamous anger issues, but was making her a laughing stock really the best way to teach her a lesson? Why not have her talk to groups of girls or find some other more productive outlet for her?

Broom and mop detail is meaningless. Compared to standing in the snow in next to nothing or dealing with fashion nazis, cleanup is a cakewalk. Naomi is a smart business woman. She will milk this free publicity for years to come.

New York Times 

It has been ten years since The Notorious B.I.G. was murdered after a party at The Petersen Automobile Museum in Los Angeles. A decade, and no one has been convicted of his murder. In fact, no one has ever been arrested.

Now, before you say “Aw, here goes that ‘hip-hop girl’ talking about rappers again.” Give me a chance to explain. See, the unsolved ten-year old murders of Biggie and 2 Pac are relevant to all Black folks. I mean, look at how often the slaying of our men goes unpunished. Emmett Till’s case was recently closed again, with no indictment. Medgar Evers, Martin Luther King, their killers were not in court until they were senior citizens. Jam Master Jay’s killer has not been arrested, either.

Then, there are all the Black men who are leaders of their families and their communities who are murdered every day. Some of their assailants are other Black men, which is tragic. But then, why should one Black man value the life of another when society doesn’t? (more…)

They say “The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.”

However, after losing her hearing in 2005 and then regaining it through surgery in Feb. 2006. Foxy Brown has been arrested more than numerous times. The arrests have been petty and childish incidents.

One took place in August of 2004 during which time she allegedly attacked two manicurists and left a nail salon refusing to pay a $20 tab. The case dragged on for over a year and in October of 2006, Foxy was finally sentenced to three years probation for the incident.

During one of her court appearances, in Dec. 2005, Brown allegedly stuck out her tongue at the Judge in her case. She was then handcuffed to a bench and then engaged in an argument with an officer of the court. She later apologized to the Judge stating that she had stuck out her tongue to show that she was not chewing gum.

Most recently, Foxy was arrested in Florida, where a “take-down” measure had to be taken against her by police.

What is wrong with Foxy Brown? (more…)

 ”My Mic Sounds Nice”

It is the longest relationship I have ever been in. There is no one and no thing that I have ever loved longer than hip-hop. The best memories of my youth have bass and the sound of a DJ scratching in the background. In fact, the sound of a needle on a record is one of the most soothing sounds I have ever heard.

I grew up with crushes on D-Nice and LL Cool J. I sent LL a letter to his fan club and a picture of my cousin, Mychele. She was older and I thought prettier, and I figured if L was going to call anyone, he would call her. He never did.

I wanted to be like Salt ‘n Pepa. Wait, that’s not right. I wanted to BE Salt ‘n Pepa. Leggings, asymetrical haircuts, and all. I had an African medallion and Kwame’s first album the day it came out. I wished I was from New York, names like Brooklyn, Queens and the South Bronx sounded as exotic as Madagascar.

Yes, I was in love.  

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According to several news sources, the photos of Anna Nicole Smith and the Bahamian immigration minister Shane Gibson have caused a stir and cries of preferential treatment.

The Bahamian people want answers and the Freeport news editorial asked: “Why and how his name is associated with the whereabouts of Anna Nicole Smith and her baby?”

The photos were originally published by the Tribune of Nassau.

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