Free Republic

Variations in skin color provide one of the best examples of evolution by natural selection acting on the human body and should be used to teach evolution in schools, according to a Penn State anthropologist. "There is an inherent level of interest in skin color and for teachers, that is a great bonus -- kids want to know," said Nina Jablonski, professor and head, Department of Anthropology, Penn State. "The mechanism of evolution can be completely understood from skin color." Scientists have understood for years that evolutionary selection of skin pigmentation was caused by the sun. As human ancestors gradually...

Today the United States finds itself adrift on a sea of uncertainty; its economy floundering under the weight of oppressive debt and mismanagement, its status in world affairs at its lowest ebb since the beginning of the 20th Century and its citizens openly questioning the future. At such a critical time the country has as its President a man unable or qualified to lead. Barack Obama is a man without a core, leaving the ship of state without a rudder in the management of foreign affairs and domestic policy which have spun dangerously out of control over the past two...

LONDON, June 4 -- For much of the world, Sen. Barack Obama's victory in the Democratic primaries was a moment to admire the United States, at a time when the nation's image abroad has been seriously damaged. From hundreds of supporters crowded around televisions in rural Kenya, Obama's ancestral homeland, to jubilant Britons writing "WE DID IT!" on the "Brits for Barack" site on Facebook, people celebrated what they called an important racial and generational milestone for the United States. "This is close to a miracle. I was certain that some things will not happen in my lifetime," said Sunila...

City JournalThe New Black Realism A new generation sees opportunity in America—and seizes it.Kay S. Hymowitz Winter 2007 What if someone gave a convention called “Black America Today” and Barack Obama, Harold Ford, Cory Booker, Bill Cosby, and Juan Williams starred as the marquee names? Right now, these are some of the black “It” guys (along with Diddy, of course)—yet they don’t fit the typical idea of “Black America,” do they? In his new book Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America—And What We Can Do About It, NPR and Fox...

  Related To Story "In the last week, I have been called (expletive) more times than I have ever been called probably in my life for calling a white boy a white boy," Lynum said. "Now, when did that become a racial slur."   Lynum: 'White Boy' Is No Racial Slur Profiling Victims Urged To Call Police Chief   POSTED: 7:11 am EDT June 29, 2006 UPDATED: 11:19 am EDT June 29, 2006   Orlando Commissioner Daisy Lynum insisted she did nothing wrong when she called a city officer who pulled over her son a "white boy," and continued...

A gene that is responsible for the pale skin of Europeans and the dark skin of Africans has been discovered by scientists at Pennsylvania State University. The gene comes in two versions, one of which is found in 99 percent of Europeans and the other in 93 to 100 percent of Africans, the researchers report in today's issue of Science. The gene is unusual because with most human genes, different versions are generally shared, though one version may be more common in one race than another. One exception is the Duffy null allele, a version of a gene that prevents...

Scientists said yesterday that they have discovered a tiny genetic mutation that largely explains the first appearance of white skin in humans tens of thousands of years ago, a finding that helps solve one of biology's most enduring mysteries and illuminates one of humanity's greatest sources of strife. The work suggests that the skin-whitening mutation occurred by chance in a single individual after the first human exodus from Africa, when all people were brown-skinned. That person's offspring apparently thrived as humans moved northward into what is now Europe, helping to give rise to the lightest of the world's races. Leaders...

As more comes to light about Diane Griego Erwin, the former Sacramento Bee columnist, the more revealing and instructive the story becomes. It is a story we mentioned in a recent Media Monitor, but much more has come to light. In one sense, it is another validation for the New Media, specifically the blogs; and for another, it shines a light on problems related to diversity in the newsrooms, when diversity strictly refers to skin color. It also spells potential big trouble for the Sacramento Bee editor, Rick Rodriguez, the new president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE)....

CHICAGO - A prominent black scholar has decided to return to the University of Chicago, three years after he left the school for Harvard. Michael Dawson, an expert the relationship of black politics and urban poverty, will join the University of Chicago in the fall as a professor of political science, university officials said Tuesday. Dawson left the Chicago university about three years ago to accept a dual appointment as professor of government and Afro-American studies at Harvard. William Kirby, dean of Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, said in a statement he was "saddened" to lose a scholar of...

Is the Rev. Al Sharpton working with Republicans to torpedo Democrat chances of locking up the black vote in this year's presidential election? That's just one of the questions raised by the Village Voice this week, in a bombshell report that details the curious relationship between GOP strategist Roger Stone and the civil rights leader-turned presidential hopeful. Describing Stone as "a longtime Republican dirty-tricks operative," the Voice said he is "financing, staffing, and orchestrating the presidential campaign of Reverend Al Sharpton." The paper says it has documented "an extraordinary array of connections" and calls Stone's role in the Sharpton...

Last week a long lost friend emailed me after coming across several of my internet columns. He said, “It sounds like you’ve become a Republican” and then nothing else. It took me a while to realize that he meant it as an insult because, in many parts of the country, the word “Republican” is a pejorative by itself. I told him that not just I, but he, and every white person in the country should join the Grand Old Party, or, at the very least, resign their Democratic Party membership as soon as they can. I often overlook the fact...

He Had a Dream August 28, 2003 It’s now 40 years since Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous “I have a dream” speech, the highlight of the 1963 March on Washington. Today the speech is widely regarded as one of the great orations of the twentieth century, but even then I found it embarrassing, and I haven’t changed my mind. In August 1963 I was about to begin my senior year in high school. My political views were fairly liberal; I barely knew what a conservative was. I sympathized broadly with King and the civil rights movement. But I...

Did not take long, since the SUPREME's decision, to go on the offensive re: DIVERSITY and AFFIRMATIVE ACTION. Jobs at the exclusion of people and races we don't like. See Monster.com's new 'DIVERSITY' career section - http://diversity.monster.com/ - of course at the exclusion of white / straight people. For example: CAREER ADVISE FOR YOU: African Americans American Indians Asian Americans Gays/Lesbians Hispanics/Latinos Older Workers Veterans/Military Transition Women Workers with Disabilities And, of course, job postings /searches for companies wishing to exclude types of races, sexes at the alter of the Diversity Gods.