As someone who has written for many years about the need for racial equality in our politics and our media, Barack Obama's inauguration Tuesday presents a wonderful quandary. It's tough to avoid the celebratory tone drenching the media these last few days, from the soaring inaugural celebration tele...

For a serious Prince fan like me, it was the perfect interview. I had secured some talk time with Lisa Coleman, the keyboard-playing half of the songwriting and performing duo Wendy and Lisa -- two proteges of the Purple Genius himself. I was such a fan that back in college, when I was playing drums...

  BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -- After tussling with conservative radio host Blanquita Cullum on CNN this morning over the issue of why some humorists think they can't make fun of Barack Obama, I decided to make sure today to ask the master: So, Saturday Night Live creator and executive producer Lorn...

Something else we can blame Jesse Jackson for: in a discussion of the n-word on The View -- in which both the show's black panelists defended their right to use it -- resident tight-ass Elisabeth Hasselbeck nearly was brought to......

Here are some of the things which occurred to me last night, while sitting through Chris Rock's amazing, near-two-hour 'No Apologies' standup tour at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. (If you like what you see here, bear in mind that last night's show wasn't completely sold out, with 2,235 seats...

  As much as some members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans say they abhor the way racists have flocked to the Confederate battle flag, there is little doubt that their continued efforts to bring the symbol into the mainstream also creates a lot of enthusiasm among racist groups. The Anti Def...

  I first heard this question from a biracial man not long after Barack Obama's game-changing win in Iowa. Pundits then were calling him the first black man with a serious shot at the presidency, but since his mother was white and his father was Kenyan, this fellow asked me, isn't he really bir...

It easily could have degenerated into chaos. Last night, before a crowd of about 60 people at Hillsborough Community College in Tampa, I led a discussion on how the media has covered race and religion that took a turn into a conflict about evangelist Bill Keller and some of his more incendiary comme...

The main people who don't seem to want to talk about race in America these days, are those who earn their living by keeping us apart. Exhibit A: Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly, a guy who I've called on the carpet many times for his use of coded words and phrases to pass along stereotypical, insult...

I didn't realize it until I was in the final stages of researching my media story today about the one-year anniversary of Don Imus' "nappy-headed hos" comments about Rutgers University's women's basketball team. But today also marks the 40th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's assassin...