DEFAMED: Misleading Quote Makes King Look Like 'Twit'!

Add Maya Angelou to the chorus of voices who are none too pleased with how the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial turned out. There's already been some hullabaloo over the fact that one of the quotes on the wall by the Tidal Basin wasn't actually uttered by King, but the one Angelou has a gripe with is a little more prominent: It's on the north face of the memorial itself. It reads, "I was a drum major for justice, peace, and righteousness." The line "makes Dr. Martin Luther King look like an arrogant twit," she said yesterday. Thing is, that line isn't exactly what he said. It had to be paraphrased following a change in the statue's design, a decision that was made without checking with Angelou, who consulted on the project, reports the Washington Post. 

BIASED: Glenn Beck thinks Michelle Obama is Behind Biracial Spider-Man!

Glenn Beck seems to think the new half-black, half-Hispanic Ultimate Spider-Man is part of some kind of conspiracy to change America. On his radio show yesterday, Beck groused about the change. “The new Spider-Man is really quite great, he looks just like President Obama,” he deadpanned, in a moment spotted by Media Matters. 

“Do I care if he’s half Hispanic, all Hispanic? No. Half black? I don’t care. I really don’t care. Half gay, all gay? I don’t really care! It’s a stupid comic book.” “However, what I do care about,” Beck continued, “is the fact that I think a lot of this stuff is being done intentionally.” Then he played a clip of Michelle Obama saying that “We’re going to have to change our traditions,” which Beck views as a smoking gun of sorts. “I know this is just one small, stupid example but really? We now have a half-black, half-hispanic, gay Spider-Man?” For the record, Comic Book Resources confirms that Miles Morales is not gay.

Dirty Secret of Fashion: It's Racist!

Watch almost any runway show in the US and Europe, and you'll find black models in extremely short supply. That's the dirty secret of fashion, say many critics. "The industry is racist. In Milan black girls never work. In Paris it's still the same," British model booker Annie Wilshaw tells the Guardian. "It's 2011 and that's quite disgusting." You "know straight away" when clients are "not talking about a black girl," she adds. "They say they want 'a girl with long hair, who looks like a fairy' or something. When they want a black girl, they will say 'looking for mixed-race girl, tribal-prints location, desert scene.'"

Some in the fashion world blame practicalities like lighting and makeup, which are different for black models, and therefore more time consuming. Model choice is also "driven by what sells and, in general, white blond girls sell, that's the mindset," says the founder of a modeling agency. "In fact, black girls do sell but they're not given as many openings. It is safer to go with a white girl, and in a recession people are very conservative." But why blame fashion, some wonder. "How can you expect fashion not to be slightly racist when the world is still racist?" asks black model Leonie Anderson.

CULTURE: Gay Asians reveal racism problems

According to BBC news:

Gay Asian men living in Yorkshire, UK say they are facing increasing racial abuse from within the gay community. They claim the problem means that some of them are fearing for their own safety and have decided to stay at home or just suffer in silence.

Naz from Wakefield explained that when he goes out on to the gay scene in Leeds and Bradford he always sees or suffers from racial abuse. "I have a fear now when I go out that there will be racism directed towards me and my friends," he told BBC Asian Network.

"It makes us feel very insecure and I don't think its worth going out because of the problems we face." Ali from Bradford is a regular on the gay scene in the North of England.

He goes out every week and tries to ignore the insults but says, inevitably, the racism does get to him. We don't get served in bars unless we protest and we get called Paki or have to deal with comments like 'here come the suicide bombers' Ali from Bradford

"If I go out then I don't like to go on my own," he said. "I always go with friends.
"We get looked at in a funny way. We don't get served in bars unless we protest and we get called Paki or have to deal with comments like 'here come the suicide bombers'."

Both Ali and Naz go to get help and advice from a group called ABC in Bradford who provide a support network for Asian and black gay men in West Yorkshire.

Arshad Khan runs the group and he said: "Being gay and Asian means we suffer from many more problems than other gay men do and it takes great courage for us to go out on the scene and mix in public.

Mr Khan concluded: "We get rejected in many of these bars and clubs and the gay community need to work together and get rid of racism."