Interesting story from The Root, considering this is a publication that covers race pretty extensively. It generated a lot of discussion on MSN yesterday. Raises some good points.

Quoted: Some of us are too pre-occupied with taking offense. We should be careful about limiting free speech, since we may be the next victims.

Today's Juneteenth, one of the most important dates in black American history. Don't know much about it? Read this article!

Quoted: Fuzzy on your Juneteenth history? Some basic background to help boost your historical street cred.

Neat idea, actually. I really think the attitude of "oh, we have a black girl already" that's called out in the article still persists.

Quoted: The July issue of Italian Vogue calls attention to prejudice by using only women of color.

A great piece on Tim Russert written by Gwen Ifill from Washington Week, The Lehrer News Hour, and Meet the Press.

Quoted: Tim Russert was a rarity in Washington; when he said he wanted to understand other people, he meant it.

Just met with the editors of The Root today and they're terming this the "Obama Generation" for black Americans, which will come to mean a post-Civil Rights Movement era when people can talk about race openly. I hope so!

Quoted: It's an almost unimaginable moment, filled with disbelief wrapped in amazement wrapped in euphoria.

A great story from The Root (Slate's spin-off). They're really finding their editorial voice - this is a fascinating, provocative piece.

Quoted: A conversation between The Root Editor-in-Chief Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Nobel laureate and DNA pioneer James Watson about race and genetics, Jewish intelligence, blacks and basketball and Watson's African roots.

The Wikipedia entry and some of the blogs are a bit misleading. Here's more on the '21' casting controversy. Apparently the issue is that the team was primarily Asian (as well as other ethnicities) and that the film throws in 2 tolken Asians in the background rather than featuring them prominently. Also, the characters' ethnicities supposedly figure into the story very clearly in the book. Now I almost want to read/watch it just to see how I feel about it this!

Quoted: The head of an Asian-American watchdog group yesterday lashed out at the made-in-Boston flick “21” and MIT card shark Jeff Ma, who he claims supported the “whitewashing” of the Sony Pictures flick. “It’s insulting and pathetic,” said Guy Aoki, head of the Media Action Network for Asian-Americans.

I agree with this author. Race is still so much of an issue in America (as evidenced by Obama's speech, the casting of '21' and this King Kong-ish cover of Vogue) but it's become 'impolite' to talk about it. It's especially sad considering this week (April 4) is the 40th anniversary of MLK's assassination.

Quoted: No matter how many "courageous" speeches Barack Obama gives, America will never be a "Let's talk about race" kind of place. It'll always be a "Let's talk about how we can't talk about race" kind of place. I'm all for doing my part. I'd like to start by talking about the cover of Vogue's current "shape" issue.