EthnicMajority

(Wall Street Journal) The Chinese-American rapper, best known to U.S. hip-hop fans for his freestyle contest wins on BET that led to a deal with the Ruff Ryders record label in 2001, has always specialized in a style of rap that showcases clever wordplay—in English.

Two years after he moved to Hong Kong, the city his parents left for the U.S., Jin’s rhyming skills in Chinese are improving steadily, he has a fresh concept album with a Singaporean hitmaker out this summer and he’s building a burgeoning acting career, with a prominent role in a film about the early life of Bruce Lee due out in November.

The 28-year-old Jin, whose full name is Jin Ah-Yeung, was born in Miami and as a teenager moved to New York, where his rap career blossomed after he won seven straight Freestyle Friday competitions on BET’s “106 & Park,” putting him in the show’s Hall of Fame. He won crowds over not just with quick, clever rhymes but also with blunt, irreverent nods to his race—a novelty his opponents frequently mocked.

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(Los Angeles Times) A survey of students at 16 California middle schools shows Hispanic kids are more likely to smoke, drink or use marijuana than their peers in other ethnic or racial groups. In probing for the reasons for substance use, researchers found that Hispanic youths may lack confidence in their ability to say “no” to peers.

The study, conducted by Regina A. Shih and her colleagues at Rand Corp., was comprised of 5,500 seventh- and eighth-grade students who were surveyed about their drug use and factors influencing drug use. Overall, 22% of the students said they had ever used alcohol, 10% said they had smoked at some point and 7% admitted to smoking marijuana. But Hispanic youths were more likely to have used these substances compared with other groups. Among Hispanic students, 26% had tried alcohol, 12% had smoked cigarettes and 9% used marijuana.

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(NewsBusters) If you thought media coverage of the Aug. 28 “Restoring Honor” rally hosted in Washington D.C. by Fox News host Glenn Beck seemed like just another attack on conservatives, you’re not alone. As noted by the Daily Caller’s Jim Treacher, much of the coverage had a common thread: describing the crowd as “overwhelmingly white.”

While the term was certainly used in coverage of Beck’s rally, it’s not a new label. “Overwhelmingly white” is a prime example of the media’s groupthink on Beck, Tea Parties, and the conservative movement in general. Virtually every major “mainstream” media outlet has used the phrase in just the past year to describe conservative events.

But even as the media criticize Tea Party and other conservative rallies for an apparent lack of diversity, they struggle to bring minority voices into their own operations.

All three broadcast networks have described the Tea Parties as “overwhelmingly white.” So have CNN, MSNBC, NPR, the Agence France Presse, The Washington Post, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, National Journal and US News & World Report. Many of those organizations are the very ones the news industry discusses as having failed to make diversity goals for staff.

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(Washington Post) Antoine Dodson’s angry, head-shaking TV interview about an attempted rape against his younger sister in her bed has turned into a chart-topping iTunes song and YouTube hit and made the 24-year-old Alabama college student an Internet sensation.

“So y’all need to hide your kids, hide your wife and hide your husband, ’cause they raping everybody out here,” the song’s catchy refrain goes.

Dodson plans to use the money from the “Bed Intruder Song” selling for $1.29 a download and T-shirt sales to move his family out of the Lincoln Park housing project where they say the attack happened. But in an era when a viral video clip can rocket anyone to stardom, some suggest that Dodson and his family are being used and that his online rant plays to racial stereotypes.

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(FoxNews) Radio and TV host Glenn Beck said Sunday he doesn’t want to retract his controversial charge last year that President Obama is racist, but does want to amend it since reading more about “liberation theology.”

“I have a big fat mouth sometimes and I say things, and that’s not the way people should behave,” Beck said, adding that he regrets saying a year ago that Obama has a “deep-seated hatred for white people” because it’s not accurate.

“I didn’t understand, really, his theology,” Beck a Fox News host, told “Fox News Sunday.” “I think that it is much more of a theological question that he is a guy who understands the world through liberation theology, which is oppressor and victim.”

Beck described liberation theology, which teaches that salvation for the individual is dependent on salvation for the collective through economic and social justice, as the message that was preached by Obama’s ex-pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

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(Babble.com) A new study shows that breastfeeding for even one month lowers mom’s lifetime risk for Type 2 diabetes. Previous research has shown a correlation between breastfeeding and reduced diabetes in mothers, this study confirms and extends those findings.

Researchers at the University of Pittsburg looked at data from over 2000 women in Kasier Permenente’s healthcare system aged 40-78. They found that women who gave birth but did not breastfeed were twice as likely to develop Type 2 diabetes compared with women who breastfed or never gave birth.

The reduction of diabetes risk may be related to the way breastfeeding women lose weight. Breastfeeding can help women lose “visceral” fat– the kind stored around the stomach and organs, and the hardest to lose. But it could also be that lactation improves glucose metabolism– diabetic women usually require less insulin when they are breastfeeding.

Though breastfeeding is often talked about in terms of benefits for the baby- including reduced risk for obesity, allergies, asthma and infections– there are benefits for the mother, too. Breastfeeding is associated with reduced reproductive cancers, arthritis, heart disease. Though the studies supporting these claims show benefits only for mothers who breastfeed for more than several months. (You can read more about these benefits here.)

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(CBS News) Three of the seven Long Island teenagers who admitted to being part of a gang that targeted Hispanics for violence were sentenced to seven-year prison terms Wednesday for their roles in the 2008 killing of an Ecuadorean immigrant. A fourth teen who met the group on the night of the slaying was sentenced to a six-year prison sentence.

Anthony Hartfold, Jordan Dasch and Jose Pacheco, all 19, each pleaded guilty to gang assault, conspiracy and attempted assault as a hate crime after confessing that they participated in an ongoing series of attacks against Hispanics, resulting in the Nov. 8, 2008 stabbing death of Marcelo Lucero.

A fourth teen, 18-year-old Christopher Overton, did not participate in earlier attacks with the gang and pleaded guilty to the same charges, but received a maximum of six years.

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(Kansas City Star) On the first day of class, everything N.C. Central University junior Ricky Magwood wore was much too big for him – from a billowy white T-shirt to the gold chain dangling nearly to his waist.

But it’s hot out, Magwood argued. And he’s an art student, so he’s going to get messy anyhow.

Ricky: Your chancellor would like a word with you.

NCCU Chancellor Charlie Nelms thinks eye-catching outfits – whether risque or just-plain sloppy – are obstacles to learning. This fall, he’s put in motion a subtle campaign to eliminate everything from pajama pants to plunging necklines.

“Suggestive, revealing clothing, by men or women, should not be worn in a classroom,” Nelms said recently. “And you shouldn’t be wearing pajamas to class!”

Nelms’ concerns are echoed across America’s college campuses, where students routinely file into lecture halls in pajamas, baggy clothing or skirts better suited for a night out on the town. Universities are fighting back; some have imposed strict dress codes, others softer guidelines.

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(Wall Street Journal) In the Research Triangle of North Carolina, there’s a struggle over school busing that probably signals serious problems for the future of economic affirmative action – the idea that only a few years ago had been the hope of those looking to replace legally questionable programs based on race.

The headlines over the school dispute in Wake County, N.C., which includes Raleigh and many of its suburbs, go to the activists who claim the school board is adopting a plan that will once again segregate the public schools.

The new school board majority, elected on the promise of return to community schools, has reversed a decade-old policy of busing kids to schools to create a desired level of children from varying economic backgrounds.

Inevitably, given housing patterns in Wake County and much of the country, market economics and the natural inclination of people to seek out those like themselves as neighbors, any effort to have kids attend their nearest school would create student bodies that are much more racially and economically homogenous.

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(ABC News) The attorney for Michael Enright, the New York City college student charged with attempted murder as a hate crime for allegedly stabbing a Muslim cab driver Tuesday, denied that his client had acted out of hatred for Muslims.

“I don’t believe that he has any underlying hatred or animosity towards Islam or Muslims in general,” said attorney Jason Martin. Enright, a 21-year-old filmmaker and School of Visual Arts senior from upstate New York, has had past run-ins with the law involving alcohol and New York City police described the Tuesday attack as an isolated incident caused by drinking.

But the city and the nation were left wondering whether the attack, which allegedly began when victim Ahmed Sharif answered “yes” to Enright’s question, “Are you a Muslim?”, was spurred by heated rhetoric over plans to build an Islamic cultural center and mosque near Ground Zero, the site of the 9/11 World Trade Center terror attack in lower Manhattan.

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