"Someone, I think it was Jesse Jackson, in the days when he had that kind of clout, managed to convince America that I preferred being African-American. I don’t," writes black journalist KA Dilday in today's New York Times. Dilday, whose writing lets us know is American but whom we had to google to discover was female, says that, regardless of where she has gone in the world, she's been cottoned to by people of color. And not just those with recent ties to Africa. "Everywhere I travel," she says, "from North Africa to Europe to Asia, dark-skinned people approach me and, usually gently but sometimes aggressively, establish a bond."

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Here's the problem with the media's obsession with stories about what "black voters" are going to do or how we feel (since we all do and feel the same things, obviously). Where to find a sample of people that represents all blacks? Well, thanks to its geographical location, the New York Times has an easy solution. Just go to Harlem, stand outside of a Bill Clinton's office building*, and ask the black people who walk by! That's what they did to find out how black people really felt about Bill Clinton's controversial campaign remarks, making sure to add this disclaimer:

To be sure, interviews conducted on a single day, in front of a single building, are apt to produce a narrow point of view. Yet the building, at 55 West 125th Street, is an important piece of real estate in Mr. Clinton’s world.

But when you take into account the disclaimer, what's the point of writing the story to begin with? No matter what, the casual reader would come to the conclusion that all of the black people in Harlem feel this certain way and most likely because they consider him to be an honorary black man. No wonder Bill O'Reilly gets confused when he visits.

P.S. Star Jones agrees with the NYT interviewees. And she doesn't even live in Harlem! The whole world is upside down.

*The reporter does get props for not going to a barber shop or beauty salon.

When I started saw this story in the New York Times about a Staten Island gang member of Liberian descent whose mother sent him to war-torn Liberia for four years (deep) to straighten him out, I was expecting to read an encouraging tale (minus the part when the story's subject recounts witnessing the public disembowelment of a pregnant woman) about how a young man used the lesson's learned on the streets of Staten Island and during his impossibly difficult years in Africa to improve his life. The ending was a lot less hope-filled than that. Even without an ending that ties things together in a pretty bow, the story is worth a read. [NYT]

• 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]