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Television

Where ‘The Walking Dead’ Fails Viewers When It Comes to Race

By Osvaldo Oyola on

This was our first week without a new episode of The Walking Dead this season, and we know it can be hard to get through Sunday’s doldrums without it. So let’s use this break to consider the bizarre racial politics of a show that continuously draws millions more viewers each season. Utilizing Slate’s Lorraine Berry’s premise that the series is a “white patriarchy” as a jumping off point, what interests me is putting the popularity of the show in conversation with its problematic aspects. I don’t have any statistics about the demographics of The Walking Dead’s audience, but I do know that when I discuss the show with friends and acquaintances who are also people of color, I find that we are engaging in a particular way with a show that we both love and hate. … Read More

Media

Vanity Fair’s Neverending Hollywood Issue Race Problem

By Judy Berman on

Tomorrow’s February 1st — which means it’s time to dig out that yearly “Is Vanity Fair racist?” headline. Yes, the magazine has unveiled its 2012 Hollywood Issue, and the cover isn’t pretty. No, strike that. It’s a lovely photo, filled with gorgeous, talented starlets. But while there are two women of color —… Read More

Sports

Photo Gallery: City Chase 2010

By Doug Levy on

On Saturday, September 25, City Chase returned to NYC, sending hundreds of competitors scrambling throughout the city in a race to complete challenges, throw inhibition out the window, and generally confuse passersby. Billing itself as an “urban adventure series,” City Chase takes place annually in cities across the nation, with the winners from each one moving on to the national finals. Teams of two are tasked with undertaking everything from knife throwing and magic tricks to karaoke and parkour, with a maximum of six hours to finish ten challenges from a list of 40. After taking part last year, we could resist the chance to do it all again. Check out our exclusive photo gallery from this year’s New York leg of the event after the jump. … Read More

Web

Stuff White Online Daters Like

By Sam Schlinkert on

Online dating is big and only getting bigger. One estimate puts it at a $932 million market next year, and a BBC poll from February says 30% of web users are looking for a boyfriend or girlfriend. With a wealth of personal information now online, these services can also serve as a great sociological tool. OkTrends is a blog that conducts original research from OkCupid, an online dating service. Their posts range from advice on how to use the dating service to graph-chalked, census-like studies on their customers. Yesterday they posted a comprehensive survey of what online daters write about themselves in their profiles. … Read More

Art

RIP: Photographer Roy DeCarava, 1919-2009

By Kelsey Keith on

y DeCarava, a key figure in postwar photography, died Tuesday at his home in New York City. DeCarava (pronounced dee-cuh-RAH-vah) turned his lens on the neighborhood of Harlem during the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s, depicting the everyday African American experience from an insider’s perspective. His work, painterly studies of shadow and darkness, transcended racial boundaries, juxtaposing stark black-and-white tonality with highly impressionistic composition. Click through to view some of DeCarava’s most iconic images and hear what the media and art establishment have to say about his… Read More

Television

Mad Men Throws Down the Race Gauntlet

By Caroline Stanley on

In an episode that featured Roger Sterling in blackface, last night’s installment of Mad Men felt like the show’s writers were aggressively responding to blogosphere criticism that they’ve been skirting the race issue. (“Mad Men takes on a number of cultural controversies, yet race is treated with politeness, distance, restraint, and a heavy dose of sentimentality,” wrote Latoya Petersonon on Double X. “For a show that takes place in the early ’60s, as race riots are breaking out, this is a glaring omission.”) While we’d argue that while rarely seen, Mad Men‘s fleeting black characters are the only people on the show who exhibit self-awareness or maturity, and that race/gender/sexuality issues should take a backseat to narrative in this case, we were still dying to read the blogger reaction to last night’s minstrel show. … Read More