Newsmaker Shirley Sherrod is set to appear before thousands of journalists on Thursday, July 29 at the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) Annual Convention in San Diego, Calif.

Sherrod has made headlines over the past two weeks for her forced resignation from the U.S. Department of Agriculture after conservativeblogger Andrew Breitbart posted video excerpts of Sherrod’s address at a March 2010
NAACP event on his website. The NAACP initially condemned her remarks and U.S. government officials called on her to resign. Upon review of the unedited video incontext, the NAACP, White House officials, and Tom Vilsack, the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, apologized soon after and Sherrod was offered a new position. Sherrod has not yet decided if she will accept the job offer.

Sherrod will have a candid conversation with a panel of journalists during a newsmaker plenary, “Context and Consequences: A Conversation with Shirley Sherrod.” The discussion will focus on the reporting and coverage of this incident and the role that race still plays in a runaway media culture.

NABJ also extended Breitbart <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Breitbart>an invitation to this session. He initially accepted, but later declined.

*EVENT: *Context and Consequences: A Conversation with Shirley Sherrod and the National Association of Black Journalists**

*TIME: 8:00 a.m. PST July 29- Newsmaker Plenary***

*LOCATION: Manchester Grand Hyatt, Room TBA*

Pin a few dollars on his lapel under his flag pin, President Obama turned 48 today.  Check his belly button was he really born though?  If so, he couldn’t have been born in the U.S……maybe Hawaii.  So to President Barack Obama, I say, HAPPY BIRTHDAY….wherever you were born.

Photo: Alex Brandon/Associated Press - President serving cake as a candidate last year on his 47th birthday

“Charlie gives this talk, ‘We do something special at Notre Dame,’ and (the players) get up and they do this little cheer … this little fa**** dance.”

University of Hawaii Head Football Coach Greg McMackin

[Had I] been the officer he verbally assaulted like a banana-eating jungle monkey, I would have sprayed him in the face with OC (oleorosin capsicum, or pepper spray) deserving of his belligerent non-compliance.”

Boston police officer Justin Barrett

“We won’t tell you who’s getting a bottle of Mad Bitch.”  Suggesting a beer Hillary Clinton could have had with the President and his guests.

Dana Milbank, Washington Post

It’s like a bad joke….A racist, a sexist, and a homophobe walk into a bar.  At least officer Barrett had the decency to be a racist via the privacy of email.  Milbank and McMakin not only made their comments in public, they expected laughs.
Hawaii suspended McMackin for 30 Days without pay, and Barrett has also been suspended and is probably on his way to being fired.  But the  Washington Post hasn’t made a decision on Milbank’s turn on “Mouthpiece Theater.”

While the nation wants to pat one another on the back and make “post-racial” the new black (that’s confusing) it’s still business as usual for biggots.  Biggots…birthers….Glenn Beck….it’s too much man.

“It was very kind of the President to phone me today. Vernon Jordan is absolutely correct: my unfortunate experience will only have a larger meaning if we can all use this to diminish racial profiling and to enhance fairness and equity in the criminal justice system for poor people and for people of color.

And to that end, I look forward to studying the history of racial profiling in a new documentary for PBS. I told the President that my principal regret was that all of the attention paid to his deeply supportive remarks during his press conference had distracted attention from his health care initiative. I am pleased that he, too, is eager to use my experience as a teaching moment, and if meeting Sgt. [James] Crowley for a beer with the President will further that end, then I would be happy to oblige.

After all, I first proposed that Sgt. Crowley and I meet as early as last Monday. If my experience leads to the lessening of the occurrence of racial profiling, then I would find that enormously gratifying. Because, in the end, this is not about me at all; it is about the creation of a society in which ‘equal justice before law’ is a lived reality.”

Struggling fathers and mothers, Black women who can’t find a man, people in prison, the argument was there for the making.  But it was also the place I remember hearing that White Americans with a felony have a better chance of getting a job than African-Americans without one.

This time, CNN is touting a solutions oriented approach with Black in America 2 that airs Wednesday night at 8 PM Central, and Thursday night at 7 PM.  Without directly responding to criticism of their generally well received first attempt, marketing for the program has promised something more.

Last night my family and I sat down to watch the 40 minute screener sent to us by CNN.  There were five impactful segments which were included:

• The story of “Journey for Change,” a youth empowerment program founded by activist Malaak Compton-Rock
• A segment on Black Marriages and one couple’s fight to stay together
• A look at the Tyler Perry phenomenon and the success of his studio
• Steve Perry and Capital Prep, a school he founded in Hartford, Conn.  Capital Prep has mostly African-American students in an urban setting and 100% of the students go on to attend a four year college upon graduation.
• John Rice, brother of U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, and his program which grooms minority executives

I was captivated by the stories of Rice and Steve Perry.  These two young men identified a need and are working to meet that need.  It’s a route that more individuals are going to have to take if our communities are to succeed.

The same can be said for Tyler Perry.  For people like me familiar with Perry from his stage play days, there really wasn’t anything new here. But it was still good to see the model of a man not just  complaining about lack of African-Americans on T.V., but employing African-Americans on camera and behind the camera.

Rock’s program didn’t strike me the same way, but some of the kids highlighted in the piece did.  One young man (I think he was 15) was a tall and outstanding basketball player, yet when Rock interviewed him for the program he was barely audible.  He constantly looked down and mumbled as he spoke, a far cry from the confidence he displayed in clips shown of him on the basketball court.

Similarly I was impacted by a young lady from Capital Prep who said when she was 15 her only goal was to get her G.E.D. and move into an apartment.  How many African-American girls across the country have also set such a pitifully low bar for themselves?  She’s now on track to attend college due in large part to her time at Steve Perry’s Magnet School.

I applaud CNN and Soledad O’Brien, as I did last year, for attempting to highlight the unique challenges that face African-Americans.  I also welcome their decision to focus on solutions and highlighting those who are out busting down walls, myths and stereotypes.

It’s easy to forget that prior to 2007, a show like Black in America barely made it to the idea phase, less known onto the screen.  NBC Nightly News  kind of got it rolling in November ‘07 before Black in American in ‘08.  Now show’s like TV One’s Stand in 2009 don’t not seem like outliers anymore.  Now that we see a Black President on TV everyday, it’s easy to forget that just a couple of short years ago -before Jena 6- Black folks on television was a rarity.

I will be locked in tonight (after the President’s Press Conference) at 8 PM Central to support CNN’s Black in America.  I hope it will inspire people to do more than just keep score, but to also get in the game and work to make a difference.

Statement on Behalf of Henry Louis Gates, Jr. — by Charles Ogletree

This brief statement is being submitted on behalf of my client, friend, and colleague, Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. This is a statement concerning the arrest of Professor Gates. On July 16th, 2009, Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., 58, the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor of Harvard University, was headed from Logan airport to his home [in] Cambridge after spending a week in China, where he was filming his new PBS documentary entitled “Faces of America”.

Professor Gates was driven to his home by a driver for a local car company. Professor Gates attempted to enter his front door, but the door was damaged. Professor Gates then entered his rear door with his key, turned off his alarm, and again attempted to open the front door. With the help of his driver they were able to force the front door open, and then the driver carried Professor Gates’s luggage into his home.

Professor Gates immediately called the Harvard Real Estate office to report the damage to his door and requested that it be repaired immediately. As he was talking to the Harvard Real Estate office on his portable phone in his house, he observed a uniformed officer on his front porch. When Professor Gates opened the door, the officer immediately asked him to step outside. Professor Gates remained inside his home and asked the officer why he was there.

The officer indicated that he was responding to a 911 call about a breaking and entering in progress at this address. Professor Gates informed the officer that he lived there and was a faculty member at Harvard University. The officer then asked Professor Gates whether he could prove that he lived there and taught at Harvard.

Professor Gates said that he could, and turned to walk into his kitchen, where he had left his wallet. The officer followed him. Professor Gates handed both his Harvard University identification and his valid Massachusetts driver’s license to the officer. Both include Professor Gates’s photograph, and the license includes his address.

Professor Gates then asked the police officer if he would give him his name and his badge number. He made this request several times. The officer did not produce any identification nor did he respond to Professor Gates’s request for this information. After an additional request by Professor Gates for the officer’s name and badge number, the officer then turned and left the kitchen of Professor Gates’s home without ever acknowledging who he was or if there were charges against Professor Gates.

As Professor Gates followed the officer to his own front door, he was astonished to see several police officers gathered on his front porch. Professor Gates asked the officer’s colleagues for his name and badge number. As Professor Gates stepped onto his front porch, the officer who had been inside and who had examined his identification, said to him, “Thank you for accommodating my earlier request,” and then placed Professor Gates under arrest. He was handcuffed on his own front porch.

Professor Gates was taken to the Cambridge Police Station where he remained for approximately 4 hours before being released that evening. Professor Gates’s counsel has been cooperating with the Middlesex District Attorneys Office, and the City of Cambridge, and is hopeful that this matter will be resolved promptly. Professor Gates will not be making any other statements concerning this matter at this time.

According to Huffington Post, a woman called Cambridge police out to the neighborhood when she reported that someone was trying to pry open the door to Gates’ home.  HuffPo says officers asked Gates to identify himself, and took him away in handcuffs after he refused to do so.

Gates has retained the services fellow Harvard professor Charles Ogletree, to serve as his lawyer.  Not good Cambridge.

Let me start by saying this: I like fried chicken, I like Kool Aid, I like Watermelon.

Now, when I first heard about Martellus Bennett’s (aka Marty B) Black Olympics video on YouTube, I kind of brushed it aside.  As a fellow Texas A&M alum, I have followed Bennett since he shocked everyone by signing a letter of intent to play Tight End for the Aggies, so I knew he had an interesting sense of humor.

It wasn’t the first time Bennett has been in trouble for his YouTube exploits, and unfortunately, it probably won’t be the last.  So after listening to talk about the video on the radio, I pulled up Marty BTV to take a look at what all the fuss was about.

Chicken eating contest, not too bad.  Kool Aid drinking contest, still watching.  But it was something about watching two grown African-American men have a watermelon eating contest that was just a little too much to handle.

I checked out Jean Jacques Taylor’s column today in regards to Bennett, and I thought it was a little heavy.  Martellus was born March 10, 1985, which was already 30 years removed from the Montgomery Bus Boycott.  To expect him to think of the Civil Rights struggle while making a video on his Mac Notebook is a bit much

What I thought was funny when I was 22 is a lot different than what I think is funny today.  And thank God we didn’t have video cameras to catch all of the ridiculous things we used to do back in the day.  At 22, I was still in College Station kicking it with my frat brothers, being young and dumb.

It looks a little funny though seeing a guy  with a million dollars having a chicken eating contest in the kitchen with his brother.  But poor decisions is a hallmark of youth regardless of how much money you have.

Martellus Bennett likes to have fun, he likes to laugh.  It gets him in trouble with the Cowboys on the field and it’s getting him in trouble off the field.  When you are 22 years old, one of the hardest lessons to learn is the impact that your actions (positive and negative) can have on others.  It’s even harder learning how to pull back when you feel like you are right.

Bennett is having a good time, but he is also hurting his career.  Catching 15 touchdowns next year will help his career more than this YouTube could ever hurt him, but sometimes in sports players need the benefit of the doubt.  That’s what I hope Marty B’s people are telling him.  That if and when he truly makes a mistake, there may not be enough goodwill left with coaches, teammates and fans to get him through it.

For the critics, the line here is very, very thin.  If you come out strong against this video then I hope you don’t own Season 1 & 2 of the Chappell Show.  The standards for what’s racist and what’s funny are often levied arbitrarily.

EXPLICIT (Language) VIDEO

Who can say what when?  Lisa Lampenelli say she can’t believe 82 black guys have a job but Don Imus can’t say….well naw, Don Imus can’t say what he said.  But you get where I’m going.

It’s a slippery slope, and what it comes down to in the end is what’s funny and what’s not.  Borat was funny, Bruno is not.  Because Bruno was not funny then the racist/bigoted humor comes off as…well…racist and bigoted.

I would suspect that Bennett is going to keep doing his thing.  If you take the time to watch a few more of the videos on Marty BTV you see it’s just a few guys literally riffing, tripping, and being corny.  I’m not going to give him a history lesson, but from one Aggie to another I’d say think about whether it’s worth all the trouble before you shoot your next production.

If you want to fly under the radar, change your jersey number in support of Darfur like Tracy McGrady did.  The media could care less about that.