The Atlanta installment of Bravo's incredibly-addictive guilty pleasure, the Real Housewives series, is coming soon. And, in a distinct departure from RH norm, the majority of the snobby, materialistic, delightfully-entertaining, cat-fighting cast this time around will be representing Atlanta's "black elite." Yes, some, but thankfully not all, are married to professional athletes.

A sneak preview of the series airs July 30th at midnight. Read about the cast after the jump.

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During a 2006 narcotics raid, three white Atlanta cops busted into the home of 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston, who was black. She was killed in the course of the raid, which turned out to have been based on an illegally-acquired warrant. The incident blew the lid off of some corrupt goings-on in the Atlanta police department and, of course, caused some serious racial tension. Now, Arthur Bruce Tesler, the only cop to stand trial in the case (the other two pleaded guilty to manslaughter), is awaiting a verdict. There's only one problem — the jury of ten whites and two blacks is hopelessly deadlocked. If he walks, I'm pretty sure Al Sharpton is going to try to shut down ATL. [AJC]

Judges all over the place are taking heat for removing people from their courtrooms based on their skin color. A judge in Atlanta recently came under criticism for removing whites from his courtroom to give some tough loves to blacks, and now a Miami job is apologizing after she ordered a 9-year-old black boy out of her courtroom. The boy was the son of a public defender, who brought his child to work so that he could see what he did for a living. The judge said the child needed to leave because the jury might think that he belonged to the defendant, who was also black.

"Even if my son was the defendant's son, there are reasons both legal and logical which he be allowed to stay in the courtroom," said Arthur Jones in a letter to The Miami Herald. "Her order's precedent would be that no African-American child is allowed in the courtroom during the trial of an African-American defendant."

Butchko apologized to the boy Friday afternoon in her courtroom, in front of his father and 15 of his father's colleagues.

"When I found out your feelings were hurt and that I made you feel unwelcome here, I felt terrible," Butchko said to Marquis, "I'm very sensitive to all kinds of diversity conscious issues."

Jones and his son accepted the apology, but later complained that the judge had apologized because "they got their feelings hurt" not because she actually did something wrong. It's a safe bet that this kid probably doesn't want to grow up to be a lawyer. [MH]

A black judge in Atlanta, who had enough of seeing young blacks come before him, recently ordered everyone but blacks out of his courtroom so he could deliver a private talk about education, responsibility, and the troubling criminal behavior he saw day after day. The judge says he didn't think he was doing anything wrong, but people are angry that he chose to single out just the blacks. Critics say there was nothing about his message that shouldn't have applied to everyone in the courtroom, and singling out one group for a paternalistic tough-love session is discriminatory. What do you think? Should the judge have saved the pep talks for outside of the courtroom or was he within his right as a judge to give a speech to the selected group?

Atlanta's City Council has gone so far as to plan a "Saggy Pants Forum" (tonight at the Civic Center at 6 pm, if you care and are in the area) where concerned citizens can weigh the pros and cons of legislation, proposed by Councilman/Old Geezer C.T. Martin, that would make wearing saggy pants a punishable offense. Legislating poor taste is all the rage across the country.

Here's what Martin had to say:

"What we want is for young people to police themselves, to think about what the long-range implications are when they do it," Martin said in an interview Tuesday. "This is going to take you nowhere. It's not going to get you a 3.8 grade point average. It's not going to get you a high-paying job. It's not going to take you to higher levels. It's a distraction. It's also disrespectful to older women."

Here's what, uh, Yung Joc had to say:

"That's attacking people's freedom of expression," hip-hop star Yung Joc said in an interview shortly after the legislation was introduced. "When Woodstock was around, did they tell people not to wear their hair long, or hemp clothing? Are they telling the skateboarders they can't wear the jeans so tight? Or those little shirts? This is targeting a certain group: young black males. And this will only give them more of a reason to pull them over; more of a reason to detain them."

The City Council will vote on the ordinance next month. Young men might want to start saving up for some new jeans.

• The NAACP of Bangor, Maine, had to cancel its Kwanzaa celebration because of threats. Excuse me for missing the point, but Bangor, Maine has an NAACP? [BN]

• The highly-celebrated NY Fire Department might finally improve its dismal diversity reputation. A record number of women, Hispanics, and blacks passed the exam this year. [NYT]

• Grady Memorial Hospital, the only public hospital in Atlanta, might be forced to close it's doors, leaving patients, who are overwhelming black and poor, in the lurch. [AP]

• Most people who have underestimated Oprah Winfrey over the years have ended up having to eat their words. I'm just saying. [CT]

• Australia's not a racist country. The government would just prefer that Africans not live there. [Reuters]

• When bored, reporters at the New York Times might fabricate a rap beef. [Idolator]

• More black male teachers are needed in South Carolina and, well, everywhere else in the country, I would bet. [WLTX]

• A task force is meeting in Atlanta today to discuss a proposed law banning sagging pants. Good luck making this one stick, guys. [AJC]

• Grambling State University Administrators are forcing the student paper to remove images of an elementary schooler with a noose around her neck as part of a really poorly planned racism lesson. [SPLC]

The annual West Indian American Day Parade is a huge event in Brooklyn, where I live, and, looking at the photos of all the colorful revelry, I'm sad I missed it. Instead I spent some time with my dear friend in Atlanta, where, at Opera on Sunday night, I had the distinctly interesting experience of standing in close proximity to the (not very tall) person I had written my weekly open letter to the day before. Had I been in a normal state of mind (i.e. had the Grey Goose not had your girl feeling a little too loose for a serious conversation about gender/racial politics), I might have introduced myself and sent Polow here. As it was, he was surrounded by a bevy of women, black ones, believe it or not, who had apparently been deemed submissive enough to share his company.

Also seen (by me) at Opera: A bunch of ATL regulars, Ludacris, and Ne-Yo, who developed an undeniably sour expression on his face when the DJ played a Bobby Valentino song right after his. Could he still be annoyed about this?

After the jump check out more pretty pictures from Labor Day in Brooklyn, since I didn't have a camera to record my Labor Day in ATL. Hope you had a great three-day weekend, too!

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It shouldn't be, but I'm still sometimes shocked the extent to which public officials, at all levels of government, are so completely out of touch with young people.

A black city councilman in Atlanta is trying to amend the city's indecency laws to make it illegal to have boxers, thongs, or even sports bras (sorry joggers) visible in public. Why not just pass an ordinance banning young black men from the streets? Ohhh. Too overt.

The amendment, sponsored by city councilman C.T. Martin, states that sagging pants are an "epidemic" that is becoming a "major concern" around the country.

"Little children see it and want to adopt it, thinking it's the in thing," Martin said Wednesday. "I don't want young people thinking that half-dressing is the way to go. I want them to think about their future."

…"The purpose of the paper is to generate some conversation to see if we can find a solution," Martin said. "It will be like all the discussions we've had around the value of the hip-hop culture. We know there are First Amendment issues … and some will say I'm just trying to put young black men in jail, but it's going to be fines."

Every few months you hear stories about laws like these getting passed in small towns in the South, but not in places like Atlanta. If public officials want to improve the way young people conduct themselves, if they want to decrease crime, if they want kids to act more respectable, policing their wardrobes is not the necessary first step. Let's figure out the difference between having bad taste and being a criminal.