Comics? Check. Coupons? Check. Parade? Check. Magazine on racial and ethnic issues in the U.S.? Starting this Sunday, check. Along with the cheesy Parade and the piles of paper-wasting inserts from Best Buy and Wal-Mart, many Sunday paper readers will find Rise Up, a Kansas-City-based weekly magazine that purports to “celebrate race and ethnicity and help us better understand our differences, celebrate our commonalities and build a great foundation to bridge the gaps that divide us.” And, if it comes sandwiched between the latest Dilbert comic and a Parade cover story about Valerie Bertinelli’s battle to overcome her coke addiction, it might actually force people to notice or talk about things they spend a lot of time not trying to notice or talk about.

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Rev. Jeremiah Wright and his “God Damn America” had, and still has, the potential to crush Barack Obama’s historic candidacy. The dire situation is apparent to everyone, and it was the desire to stem the controversy that inspired Obama to give a speech on race and politics today. I wondered how he was going to do it. Because I know — and you know — the way black people, especially older black people, talk about white people and America in the company of other blacks. It’s something that white people, particularly those who don’t know many blacks, either don’t understand or don’t want to understand. And, because Barack Obama has made the decision to condemn Wright’s opinions but not the actual man, it was something that Obama had to explain. I think he was successful. The speech was honest and as real as it could have been, given that we’re talking politics here. I certainly have never heard a politician speak about race in such a real, meaningful way. Not in a blind “can’t-we-all-just-get-along” way, but in a way that really inspires people to think hard about where hate and resentment comes from and to at least start trying to move past it.

Wright was the inspiration, but in the speech he transcended that one issue. By using Trinity Church and Wright as symbols of a black community that he loves dearly but disagrees with, he attempted to show that he could separate the opinions from the person and that people like Wright feel the way they do for a good reason.

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Barack Obama is set to make a speech today that some are saying will be the most important speech of his career. Like Mitt Romney’s speech about Mormonism, which was modeled after John F. Kennedy’s address about Catholicism in 1960, Barack Obama plans to speak in Philly today about a thing lots of Americans are confused about — racial issues, and how they play out in politics, at home, and most importantly (for right now), at church. While some advisers told him not to give the speech, others said that race is on the table now and needs to be discussed. So stay tuned…

• A group of political scientists examined 27 college-level poli-sci textbooks and found that they coverage of blacks was usually limited to a chapter on the Civil Rights movement. [IHE]

• Obama tells black supporters not to be mad at the Clinton’s attacks — consider them a compliment to him. [SGVT]

• A West Virginia community service club doesn’t allow blacks? How quaint. [TWV]

• DMC lobbied NJ lawmakers yesterday for adoptee rights. [ND]

• Once you get past Masta Killa’s name, he’s really quite a softy. PETA has named him the world’s most animal-friendly rapper. [AHH]

A lot of people came to Tiger Woods’ defense recently for his use of “Cablinasian” to define his racial makeup. I make fun of it, but I honestly don’t care what Tiger Woods calls himself. Others said that calling yourself Cablinasian is one thing, but deliberately downplaying or outright ignoring the part of you that’s black is another. Now that his camp has released a statement that totally blows off Kelly Tilghman’s controversial quip about Tiger Woods getting lynched in a back alley, that latter group’s argument just got stronger.

Mark Steinberg, Woods’ agent, issued a statement declaring the uproar regarding lynching and the first black golfer to win a major title was not a major concern.

“This story is a non-issue,” Steinberg said. “Tiger and Kelly are friends and Tiger has a great deal of respect for Kelly. Regardless of the choice of words used we know unequivocally that there was no ill-intent in her comments.

“This story is a non-issue in our eyes. Case closed.”

Maybe you have to be more in touch with your “bl” side to understand that lynching jokes aren’t really appropriate. [AFB]

No Bradley Effect here, ladies and gents. Be honest!

• Beyonce won the appeal in her copyright infringement case. She also supposedly got married to Jay-Z at Giorgio Armani’s house. Whatever. [EUR]

• St. Louis firefighters, the white ones, I mean, say that a stuffed monkey, which was found by a black firefighter, hanging from its neck at the firehouse was just ringing out to dry after being found at the scene of a fire. Hmmm. [NYT]

• Along with this story, whose headline reads “Does Obama’s Win Show US Is Colorblind,” I received about 10 links in my inbox this morning about whether the man’s “blackness” is at an appropriate level. So I guess that answers that question. [NW]

• T.I. and Tiny are having a baby that probably won’t really get to know its dad until its in elementary school. [People]

• Blacks and Jews in NYC need to band together to stop hate crimes, say community leaders. [NYDN]

In real life, that colored puzzle piece has an afro or dreads. [TS, Things of Max]

According to the Cleveland Plain-Dealer, more black people “appear” to be adopting white children. This basically means that they have no idea whether or not this is a growing trend but wanted to write about it anyway.

But it does happen, and often for specific reasons — white children are sometimes adopted into black families based on a bond that developed during foster care, which is very understandable, or because an older child requested a black family. It is still far more common for white people to adopt black children, maybe because there are so many adoptable black children (they make up 78 percent of the adoption pool in Cleveland). This brings me to my next point — as a black woman, barring the foster-child circumstance or if the white child was born to someone I know and love, choosing to adopt a white child when I know how much higher in demand they are than black children is unimaginable to me.

The article suggests that these sorts of adoptions are usually circumstantial, and that blacks rarely request white children. If it ever really becomes a growing trend for black people to pass over a huge, largely unwanted black pool of adoption-ready black kids and pick the white kid instead, then my faith in our community will definitely be shaken.

Not only are skin-bleaching creams disgustingly bad for the psyche, many of the ones sold in the UK are also illegal and possibly be unhealthy.

“Illegal bleaching creams and soaps are a major problem,” Bouch says. “And once we eradicate it from Brixton, it will go to another borough where there’s a big Asian or Black population.”

Skin bleaching — using chemical or natural products to lighten skin color — is common practice in the Americas, Africa, across Asia, and increasingly, in Europe.

Psychologists say consumer demand can be traced to perceptions that lighter skinned or white people are more successful, intelligent and sexually desirable.

And as the UK’s Asian, African and African-Caribbean communities grow, so too — cosmetics industry experts say — does ethnic spending power for products promoted to lighten skin tone.

People, but specifically women, of color across the world have been trying to lighten their skin for ages. This is a pretty well known fact. And yet, hearing about skin-bleaching creams being in high demand upsets me more than nooses hanging from trees and crosses burning in front yards. Where’s the self-love, guys?

Thanks Racialicious

America, it is a-changing. According to a new Census Bureau analysis, Garcia and Rodriguez are now among the top 10 most popular surnames in the country. And Martinez almost took 10th place from Wilson. I’m sure it makes all of those anti-immigration folks feel all warm and snuggly.

But while some parts of America are changing, some things are the same as they ever were. Consider this: 90 percent of people with the last name Washington are black. Seventy-five percent of our nation’s Jeffersons are, too.

The founding fathers left their stamp on this country in more ways than one.

A new survey from the Pew Research Center says black people are more pessimistic today than they have been since the 80s. I wonder why?

Maybe it’s this stupid war. Or our stupid president and his incompetent appointees and unfair justice system and idiotic reaction to a major hurricane. Stupid Supreme Court decisions? I’m just throwing some stuff out there.

It found that just one in five blacks, or 20 percent, said things were better off for blacks compared with five years ago; that is the smallest percentage since 1983, when 20 percent also made that claim. In-between, the percentage of blacks who said things had gotten better had grown, only to drop back to 20 percent.

Another 29 percent of blacks said things had gotten worse as opposed to staying the same, the largest number since 32 percent made that claim in 1990.

In addition, fewer than half of all blacks, or 44 percent, said they expected their prospects to brighten in the future. That’s down from 57 percent in 1986, during the height of the Reagan administration when the Justice Department actively sought to curtail affirmative action in favor of race-neutral policies.

Conversely, most whites pretty much think that things are just peachy or on the upswing for blacks. No need to wonder why.

Oh, and the income gap has grown between whites and blacks. So that probably doesn’t help.

James Watson is nearly 80 and looks it — his skin is dotted with liver spots, a shock of wispy white hair (half) covers his head, wrinkles surround his blue eyes, and his teeth… Well, don’t get me started on his teeth. But it’s the Chicago-born Nobel laureate’s ideas, not his physical appearance, that age him the most. Lauded almost 50 years ago for determining, with the help of an unrewarded female researcher named Rosalind Franklin and others, the structure of DNA, it seems like his mission since has been to sully his notable scientific works with off-color comments.

From CNN:

In 1997, Britain’s Sunday Telegraph quoted Watson as saying that if a gene for homosexuality were isolated, women who find that their unborn child has the gene should be allowed to have an abortion.

During a lecture tour in 2000, he suggested there might be links between skin color and sexual prowess and between a person’s weight and their level of ambition.

And in a British TV documentary that aired in 2003, Watson suggested that stupidity was a genetic disease that should be treated.

Watson’s latest comments, about a link between race and intelligence, may have destroyed his reputation in the scientific community and his legacy for good. Stereohyped spoke to Dr. Joseph L. Graves, Dean of University Studies at North Carolina A&T University and the author of The Emperor’s New Clothes: Biological Theories of Race at the Millennium and The Race Myth: Why We Pretend Race Exists in America about James Watson, scientific racism, and the need for more scientific literacy.

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Here’s a root of the problem with today’s black youth — local governments think that baggy pants are the root of the problem. Small (and big towns) across the country are setting up laws policing fashion faster than the ACLU can draw up press releases.

•New bans have been adopted in Hawkinsville, Ga., and six Louisiana cities and parishes, including Shreveport and Alexandria.

•Proposed bans are under consideration in Trenton and Pleasantville, N.J.; Charlotte; Dallas; Baltimore; Atlanta and three other Georgia towns including Rome, Brunswick and Plains; Duncan, Okla.; and Yonkers, N.Y.

•Bans have been rejected in Natchitoches, La.; Stratford, Conn.; and Pine Bluff, Ark.

Penalties range from fines or jail time to warnings. Several towns in Louisiana, including Mansfield, near Shreveport, passed measures in June that include fines of $150 or 15 days in jail. The Dallas city council is considering a non-binding resolution against sagging pants.

If these towns want to make baggy pants against the law, what about mullets, cowboy boots, and confederate flag t-shirts? Oh, right. There would be no point. Young black males don’t wear those things.

[USAT]