Dwayne McDuffie, RIP: Championed Diversity Among Champions; NPR, 2/23/11

Glen Weldon, NPR; Dwayne McDuffie, RIP: Championed Diversity Among Champions:

"Race was dealt with matter-of-factly, but it was dealt with.

A new generation of kids who watched McDuffie's work saw worlds full of heroes — worlds that looked a lot like their own, and heroes that looked a lot like them.

Did McDuffie's pugnaciousness on matters of diversity (read the very funny memo he wrote when, as a Marvel editor, he detected a surfeit of skateboardin' black superheroes) change superhero comics forever?"

Perry Moore, Author of Book About Gay Superhero, Dies at 39; New York Times, 2/19/11

Dennis Hevesi, New York Times; Perry Moore, Author of Book About Gay Superhero, Dies at 39:

"Perry Moore, an executive producer of the fantasy movie series “The Chronicles of Narnia” and the author of “Hero,” a book about a gay superhero, died on Thursday after being found unconscious in his Greenwich Village apartment. He was 39...

But Mr. Moore, who was gay, had a more personal mission: although he was glad that comic books had been introducing gay superheroes for some time, he wanted to see them portrayed in a better light. What particularly disturbed him was the death of Northstar, a member of Marvel Comics’ X-Men, whose announcement in a Marvel comic book that he was gay made headlines in 1992. In 2005 Northstar was killed by a brainwashed Wolverine. Mr. Moore said he felt that the murder of Marvel’s biggest gay hero by one of its most popular characters had sent the wrong message.

He began giving speeches in which he cited his own research showing that more than 60 gay and lesbian comic-book characters had been ignored, maimed or murdered."

Counting by Race Can Throw Off Some Numbers; New York Times, 2/10/11

Susan Saulny, New York Times; Counting by Race Can Throw Off Some Numbers:

"The chameleon-like quality of Ms. López-Mullins’s racial and ethnic identification might seem trivial except that statistics on ethnicity and race are used for many important purposes. These include assessing disparities in health, education, employment and housing, enforcing civil rights protections, and deciding who might qualify for special consideration as members of underrepresented minority groups."

Did the Rooney Rule Really Work?; New York Times, 1/31/11

Freakonomics, New York Times; Did the Rooney Rule Really Work? :

"Last week, Tobias J. Moskowitz and L. Jon Wertheim wrote a guest post about black coaches in the NFL and the introduction of the Rooney Rule, which requires teams to interview at least one minority applicant when filling head-coaching spots."

How Much Has The Rooney Rule Helped Black Coaches In The NFL? ; ThePostGame.com, 2/7/11

Alan Grant, ThePostGame.com; How Much Has The Rooney Rule Helped Black Coaches In The NFL? :

"TPG: Is Mike Tomlin pro football’s Barack Obama?

Duru: I think in some ways, yes. I was reading an article during the summer when Obama was fighting for the Democratic nomination. The question was, ‘Why now?’ Why all of a sudden do people believe a black person can win? One of the reporter’s conclusions was that Obama was helped in part because people had begun to see an increased number of black head coaches of sports teams. That suggested a young African-American could succeed in running the country. It made people think Obama could win. There is a belief now, in this country, that the non-prototypical human being can fill the leadership role."

Is Oprah’s Network Too White?; Newsweek, 1/30/11

Allison Samuels, Newsweek; Is Oprah’s Network Too White? :

"Does Oprah’s network need more diversity? Many African-American women seem to think so, including Black Entertainment cofounder Sheila Johnson, who says that Winfrey should “open her circle a bit more,” and blogs such as Hello Beautiful and Clutch, which have complained bitterly about the absence of black faces and voices on the fledging network...

“Oprah is the network’s diversity,” says Todd Boyd, a professor at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts. “And that’s been the way she’s operated from the beginning of her career, so I’m not sure why there is even a question about more diversity. That’s really not who she is or who she ever was.”"

Census Data Show Rise in College Degrees, but Also in Racial Gaps in Education; Chronicle of Higher Education, 1/23/11

Alex Richards, Chronicle of Higher Education; Census Data Show Rise in College Degrees, but Also in Racial Gaps in Education:

"One thing that jumps out of the data is the large educational gap experienced by blacks and Hispanics. That can be difficult to examine fairly over time because of changes in how the census has handled race and ethnicity, but a clear contrast exists with college degrees in the population as a whole.

For instance, the census estimates that in 2009, 28 percent of Americans 25 and older had at least four-year degree.s But the rate for black Americans was just 17 percent, and for Hispanic Americans only 13 percent...

"I think the backdrop to all this is that socioeconomic conditions have created an environment which makes it fairly difficult for African-American males, and African-Americans in general, to go on to college," Mr. Levine said."