African American Love: Is there a Financial Boost to Marriage for Men?

Historically, marriage was the surest route to financial security for women. Nowadays it's men who are increasingly getting the biggest economic boost from tying the knot, according to a new analysis of census data.

The changes, summarized in a Pew Research Center report being released Tuesday, reflect the proliferation of working wives over the past 40 years — a period in which American women outpaced men in both education and earningsgrowth. A larger share of today's men, compared with their 1970 counterparts, are married to women whose education and income exceed their own, and a larger share of women are married to men with less education and income.

"From an economic perspective, these trends have contributed to a gender role reversal in the gains from marriage," wrote the report's authors, Richard Fry and D'Vera Cohn.

 

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TLC’s New Show Features a Black Family, But…

TLC has once again added another “unique” family show to their line up.  This time it’s not about a family with a outrageous number of kids or a family that is of short stature, actually this time the show is the complete opposite.  Yesterday, TLC’s new reality show “One Big Happy Family” aired.  The show features the Coles family which consists of a mom, dad, daughter, and son that each way more than 300 pounds.  To some the show may follow a similar concept to TLC’s already popular family reality shows such as “John & Kate Plus 8”, “Little People Big World”, and “The Little Couple”, and except for John and Kate the other family’s conditions aren’t preventable.  Also the fact that the Coles family has already received the nickname “the Klumps” (Nutty Professor) doesn’t help the image of the family, but maybe I am being to critical of the show.  What are your thoughts?

Click here for a preview of “One Big Happy Family”

Random Hookups and Liquor Can Lead to HIV

It's a warm summer night. A young man sits on the corner of Broadway and 12th Street in downtown Oakland sipping from a bottle of Hennessey. Bored and looking for a sexual fling with no strings attached, the young man dials up The Biosphere, a popular social networking tool that anyone with access to a phone can use to meet people in their area. It's basically a party line for random hookups and one-time sexual encounters.
As soon as he gets through, he hears the disclaimer that The Biosphere is not responsible for any actions or consequences that may result from meeting someone online. An hour later, the young man finds himself in the company of a complete stranger -- names don't matter since they're probably all made up. Besides, the odds are against the two of them making a love connection. Ten minutes in, they're engaged in some extremely risky behavior.
The young man is only 17, a senior in high school, from a good home, and curious about exploring his sexuality.

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Student Gets in Trouble for Dressing Up as Aunt Jemima

By Danielle Canada

A student at a Long Island high school was sent home Friday after showing up to school dressed like Aunt Jemima and toting around a syrup bottle asking, “You want some pancakes?”

Commack High School senior, 17-year-old Dean Jeziorkowski, donned a wig, bandanna, and makeup for the costume. School officials ordered the boy to wash off the makeup and when he refused he was sent home.

His classmate, 16-year-old Danny Cuevas, defended his friend saying,

“I don't think it's that racist. At one point in time, that might have been seen as racist but not now.”

Jeziorkowski's family has yet to comment.

Oh okay I get it now. It's not that racist…just a little bit. So that makes it okay, right?

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Boy Accused of the Beating Death of Chicago Teen Derrion Albert Gets Charges Dropped

By Danielle Canada

One of the teenagers accused of beating 16-year-old Derrion Albert to death is being let free. First degree murder charges were dropped against 18-year-old Eugene Bailey who was arrested two days after the honor student's killing outside of Fenger Academy High School.
The state's attorney's office released a statement on his release saying,

“While the charge against Bailey was brought in good faith based on witness accounts and identifications, additional information has developed during the ongoing investigation that warranted dismissal of the murder charge against Bailey at this time."

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Three People Die During a Marathon in Detroit

A half-marathoner and two other runners died during the Detroit marathon on Sunday, organizers said.

Daniel Langdon, 36, of Laingsburg, collapsed at about 9:02 a.m. between the 11- and 12-mile markers, said Rich Harshbarger, vice president of consumer marketing for the Detroit Media Partnership.

Rick Brown, 65, of Marietta, Ohio, collapsed at 9:17 a.m., near where Langdon went down, and 26-year-old Jon Fenlon of Waterford collapsed at about 9:18 a.m., just after finishing the half-marathon in 1:53:37, Harshbarger said.

It was unclear whether Brown and Langdon were participating in the 13.1-mile half marathon or the full race.

Harshbarger told the Free Press that there were at least six medical stations on the race course and that emergency personnel were on the scene within seconds.

Every runner must sign a medical release form, and they are encouraged to talk to their doctors before they run the race, Harshbarger said.

"On a day when so many people bring such energy and challenge themselves to do their utmost, this news is very difficult to hear," said Free Press editor and publisher Paul Anger said. "Our deepest sympathies are with the families."

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HBCU Enforces Stricter Dress Code

by Danielle Canada

Students at Morehouse College are being held to a higher standard. The administration is preparing to enact a dress code later this month. According to the college's newspaper, the Maroon Tiger, the dress code is formally called the ‘Appropriate Attire Policy.' The new way of dress is set to enforce the president of the college, Dr. Robert Franklin's idea of a “Renaissance Man” as presented during one of his speeches.

Included in the policy are 11 new rules including no sagging pants, no headwear and the most amusing request of  all, no women's clothing. The policy will be distributed online via the school website and in the student handbook. 

As previously reported, a prolific 11-year-old  named Jonathan McCoy worked with campus administration on the dress code and elimination of the use of the n-word on campus.

As a Hampton University graduate where our dress code prohibited sagging pants, du rags, white tees and baseball caps I applaud Morehouse for taking a stand. Dress codes hold students to a higher standard and while their policy is less strict that my Alma Mater's I think it's a good idea.

Device Used for “Artificial” Virginity Causes Controversy

By Jordan C. Alston

"Add a few moans and groans and you will pass through undetectable," says the advertising for one of the most controversial inventions to ever hit store shelves.

Religious conservatives in Egypt, livid and much of the Middle East, are livid over a product that allows women another opportunity to be virgins again. At least in theory.

Advertised by Gigmo, the product serves as a cheap alternative to a significantly more expensive alternative in vaginal rejuvenation, a process that has risen to fame with American women.

Originally designed to fool men into believing that their wife was “pure”, the device is inserted into the vagina, emitting amount of blood-like substance when struck.

Among those against the product is Abdul Mouti Bayoumi, a leading Egyptian scholar, whom believes that anyone caught peddling or importing the cheap deception device should be put to death for “spreading vice.”

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Ohio Woman Gets Arrested for Pulling Prank

By Denise Yost

A Central Ohio woman created a panic and mess Tuesday after telling everyone in a store that she just won the lottery and was going to give the money away.

The woman had called to get a limousine to pick her up at her apartment and drive her around, stopping at the Burlington Coat Factory on East Main Street. 

The woman told everyone in the store that she was going to pay for all of their purchases.

People started talking and soon, there were hundreds of people in the store and even more outside, assuming the woman was going to pay for their items.

Officers were called to disperse the crowd.

Police discovered that the incident was a hoax. The woman didn’t win the lottery.

She was arrested and could be charged with inducing panic and possibly fraud.

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What Makes Women Want to have Sex?

What makes a woman want to have sex? Is it physical attraction? Love? Loneliness? Jealousy? Boredom? Painful menstrual cramps?

Many women interviewed were having sex purely because they wanted the experience.

It turns out that woman have sex for all of these reasons and more, and that their choices are not arbitrary; there may be evolutionary explanations at work.

Psychologists Cindy Meston and David Buss, both professors at the University of Texas at Austin, decided that the topic of "why women have sex" deserved a book of its own. They've woven scientific research together with a slew of women's voices in their new collaborative work, "Why Women Have Sex," published September 29 by Times Books.

"We do bring in men occasionally by way of contrast, but we wanted to focus exclusively on women so that the complexity of women's sexualpsychology was not given the short shrift, so to speak," said Buss, a leading evolutionary psychologist.

The authors conducted a study from June 2006 to April 2009 that asked women whether they had ever had sex for one of 237 reasons, all of which had emerged in a previous study. About 1,000 women contributed their perspectives. Watch women answer The Question »

It turns out that women's reasons for having sex range from love to pure pleasure to a sense of duty to curiosity to curing a headache. Some women just want to please their partners, and others want an ego boost.

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Visit Your Black World for the latest in Black News?

Tavis Smiley Cuts Ties with Wells Fargo

 

Tavis Smiley has terminated his business relationship with Wells Fargo over claims that the bank used well-known African-American Public figures to swindle minority borrowers into high-risk subprime homes loans.

The "seminars" were held in over eight cities in predominately black neighborhoods under the pretense of "Wealth Building." Smiley, who hosts his own PBS show, was one of many speakers who were often featured at the seminars that promoted home ownership.

According to Mary Kane of the Washington Independent website, Smiley and other "hosts" would encourage the attendees to seriously consider buying real estate and making investments in housing properties.

"I cut everything off with Wells Fargo," he declared. He said the move cost "a lot of money"; he said he did not know how much.       

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WTF…The City of Detroit is Going Broke

By Michael H. Cottman

The clock is ticking on the Motor City.

The City of Detroit is on the verge of going broke in 10 days unless Mayor Dave Bing can figure out a way to fix a $300 million deficit.

Bing set Oct. 1 as the deadline to get the city’s financial crisis under control or the city could fall into receivership. People are being laid off. Bus routes are being discontinued. Schools are closing. City employees - including public school teachers - say they fear for their jobs.

And to make matters worse, in a city where crime is spiraling out of control, even Detroit’s top cops are getting mugged.

Last weekend, one of Detroit’s deputy police chief’s was robbed of $300 - at gunpoint. Deputy Chief Herbert Moreland was off duty and robbed outside of his car around 3 a.m., said spokesman John Roach.
“At some point the deputy chief struggled with the suspect, and the deputy chief had his departmental-issued weapon with him and fired several shots at the suspect, who fled,” Roach said.
How bad is the situation in Detroit when the city’s cops are getting jacked?

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Black Wheelchair Amputee Gets Tasered by Police

by Jordan C. Alston

40-Year-old double leg amputee, Greg Williams, found himself an unwitting victim of police brutality, as the wheelchair bound man shockingly became a victim of police brutality.

Merced County Police Department of Merced County California has tasked their Internal Affairs Division with investigating the incident which saw two police officers, both white, taze the wheelchair-bound man.

Williams, who was recently released from jail, adamantly maintains that he was never aggressive toward the either of the arresting officers and that he did not resist arrest. Naturally the “official” account of things differs greatly from the story that Mr. Williams has given.

A police report from Merced P.D. reads that John Pinnegar and Sergeant Rodney Court attempted to reason with Williams before any action was taken. After subduing the 40-year-old man, both officers noted that Williams was uncooperative to their demands, also noting that he outright refused to relinquish his two year old daughter to Merced County Child Protective Services.

The most painful moments in the ordeal may have come after the actual pain subsided. Williams was allegedly left outside, handcuffed on the pavement, nude from the waist down. A video clip taken by a neighbor verifies his claims. He also maintains that his shoulder was injured in the arrest limiting mobility in his wheelchair.

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Atlanta HBCU’s Receive $7 Million from Coca-Cola

The Coca-Cola Co. will donate $6 million to Spelman College, Morehouse College, Clark Atlanta University and the Morehouse School of Medicine, and will also give $1.2 million to the Robert W. Woodruff Library on the campus of the Atlanta University Center.

The historically black colleges are all part of the Atlanta University Center.

The beverage giant said the $6 million will help students where economic hardship threatens to derail the completion of their education. The $1.2 million for the Robert W. Woodruff Library will be used to upgrade IT infrastructure and to manage and provide access to archival documents, such as the Martin Luther King Jr. papers.

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Will Tyler Perry Make it to #1 Again???

Four movies open in wide release across North America this week, and all should ring up decent returns in a competitive session that could alter early fall's reputation as a dumping ground for low-quality fare.

Weekend honors will likely go to Tyler Perry's "I Can Do Bad All by Myself," with prerelease tracking suggesting an opening in the $25 million-$30 million range for the Lionsgate release.

Perry's previous outing, "Madea Goes to Jail," posted a personal-best $41 million bow in February en route to grossing $90.5 million domestically. Yet during this frame's comparable weekend last year, Perry's "The Family That Preys" fell on the lower end of his openings with $17.4 million for a movie that went on to pull in just $37.1 million in North America.

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Remembering September 11, 2001

It has been eight years today since the devastation of September 11, 2001, and America is still recovering from the events that took place on that tragic day.

Spelman Student Killed During Shooting at Clark Atlanta

Jasmine Lynn, a Spelman student in her 20s from Kansas City, Mo., was shot after gunfire broke out during a fight in the 200 block of James P. Brawley Drive, according to police.

Lynn was walking with a group of friends back to the Spelman campus when they passed by the fight.

"One of the friends actually heard the gunshots, actually saw the weapon and told her to get on the ground," said Lt. Keith Meadows of the Atlanta Police Department. "Before she was able to get on the ground she was struck in the chest by a stray round."

Bystanders rushed to help Lynn.

"I walked up to the girl 'cause she was laying on the ground," said witness Danays Marquez. "She was drenched in blood and it looked like she was taking her last breath."

A bullet also hit an 18-year-old Clark-Atlanta student in the wrist. He was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital.

Two people were arrested at the scene, but police did not reveal the charges against them.

Source

Pastor Slain in Church

Authorities warned pastors in a town where a preacher was brutally killed inside her own church that they should take precautions at their buildings, even as police refused to say exactly what happened.

District Attorney Bret Burns, who described the killing as "horrific," held a closed-door session with about two dozen pastors, along with members of law enforcement. Several pastors who were there said authorities did not discuss any facts of the case.

"We talked about security issues within their churches and their congregations," Burns said. "We asked them to remain vigilant and be aware of their surroundings and their church locations."

He did not say why the meeting was held just with pastors rather than the community at large, or what kind of a threat the clergy might face.

The body of 61-year-old Carol Daniels was found Sunday in the Christ Holy Sanctified Church in Anadarko. A preliminary autopsy found she died of "multiple sharp force injuries," but law enforcement declined to elaborate and have been tight-lipped about details of the crime or a possible motive.

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Gym + Sweat=Bad Hair...For Black Women, it Doesn't Add Up

 

A nice body plus hard work sometimes equals bad hair, for black women.  Black women tend to be discouraged from going to the gym because of the effect that it has on their hair.  As someone who works out three to five times a week, the hair in the middle of my head has been destroyed significantly because of constantly pulling my hair in ponytails to make it manageable.  "I don't know how much more of the gym I'll be able to take because it is destroying my hair," you'll hear me say.  Unlike their white counterparts, black women who frequent the gym have to choose between the appearance and health of their hair and fighting obesity, being fit.  For many black women it isn't worth the sacrifice.  Click Here For More

Tyra Banks Dares to Bare it All

To kick off the new season of her show The Tyra Banks Show , Tyra has decided to ditch the wig and show her real hair. Read what she had to say below.

”This season on The Tyra Show we’re taking it to the next level and getting more real than ever before by encouraging women everywhere to own and rock what they’ve got and be proud! For the Season 5 premiere, I will be doing just that - no fake hair, I’m rocking my REAL hair. This will all be going down on September 8, 2009, which we’re declaring National Real Hair Day! We welcome everyone to go natural with me!”

People now celebrate when they take their weaves out??? It’s now official that wearing weave is an epidemic.