Southern Baptist Convention Elects Black President

The predominantly white Southern Baptist Convention made history and headlines late Tuesday when they elected Fred Luter, Jr. their first African-American president. Luter is pastor of Franklin Baptist Church in New Orleans.

Fury Over Racist Black Cake in Sweden

Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth, Sweden's culture minister, faced furious calls to resign after she was pictured cutting a 'racist' black cake designed like a naked African woman as the "cake" was displayed at the Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm. she was invited to cut the cake which was designed like a naked African woman.

The Swedish minister cut pieces from the black cake, which had blood-red sponge and was designed to highlight the issue of female genital mutilation.

Despite the intentions of the bizarre cake, however, critics described it as a 'racist spectacle', and demanded Ms Liljeroth resigned for participating in the 'tasteless' event. The Association for African Swedes said the cake was a crude racist caricature which 'makes a mockery of racism'

Makode Linde, the artist who came up with the cake, had placed his own head at the top of the cake and said it had been misunderstood.

The black cake, part of an exhibition on World Art Day, was intended as part of the artist's project illustrating degrading stereotypes of black people through history.

Liljeroth, whose photograph cutting a piece of the cake was widely shown in Swedish media, said she understood why people would be offended by the incident.

She said in a statement: 'I was invited to speak at World Art Day about the freedom of art and its right to provoke.

'And then they wanted me to cut into the cake. I don't review art, but I can very well understand that this whole situation was misunderstood.'

Is this just a "tasteless" event or is it racism and racist caricature?  What do you think?

Afro Style Washing up Sponges from U K

Tom Gardner, Mail Online, reports on a company behind a new range of Afro style washing up sponges has been slammed for being racist.

Campaigners have attacked British makers Paladone for its latest range of dish cleaning products which caricatures black soul legend Diana Ross as having a brillo pad for a hairstyle.

Psychologist Fired For "Why Black women Are Less Attractive"

A psychologist has been fired from his blogger post at Psychology Today and had his profile page deleted by the company's website after posting a "study" blog stating "Why All Black Women Are Less Attractive."

Satoshi Kanazawa, also employed by the London School of Economics, recent posting of an unfounded blog stating, "black women are rated less attractive than other women," received disdain from hoards of angry people, not just black women.

His "scientific analysis" of black women's inferior beauty is based on the opinions of unidentified "interviewers" and their entirely subjective standards of beauty.

Having some men in white coats rate the attractiveness of a handful of women on a scale of 1-5 resembles a glorified version of the game "hot or not", not some serious attempt at engaging the scientific method.

My question is How was Kanazawa allowed to spew his hateful message about "racial inferiority". Psychology Today's attempt to generate attention and profit backfired resulting in a so called "apology". Never mind the fact that the publication damaged its credibility.

Source: The Grio Blog, Lori Adelman

Related articles

• Satoshi Kanazawa's racist nonsense should not be tolerated | Nanjala Nyabola (guardian.co.uk)
• The Data Are In Regarding Satoshi Kanazawa (blogs.nature.com)
• Psychologist Fired For "Why Black Women Are Unattractive Study" (newsone.com)