"He is going through a rejuvenation process for his skin," Polihronis said. "Women have it all of the time. He was surprised he came out looking so white. I thought it was a body double. Part of (the photo appearance) is just the lighting.

"He is in the middle of doing a cleansing process to his skin. The picture is deceiving. He said, 'If you saw me in person, you would be surprised. When you see me in person, it is not going to seem like the picture.'

"People who saw him in person did not react the same way. He can't believe it is such a big deal."

The reason it’s such a big deal is because, well, we know historically darker skin often has been deemed more of an albatross than an asset. I would like to say we’ve moved away from that unfortunate type of thinking. But it’s still prevalent in far too many circles. Having light skin falls into the same camp as having “good hair.”  I also would like to say we’ve moved  away from that, too. But if you’ve seen entertainer Chris Rock’s new documentary/movie, “Good Hair,” you know that’s not necessarily the case.

The reason Sosa is in the spotlight is because he appears to be yet another brown person unhappy in his skin.  He says that’s not true. But in the photos, Sosa’s eyes appear lighter and his hair straighter.  It does make you wonder….

When we consider even the specter of skin whitening, we think of the spectacle that was Michael Jackson.  He also said he was happy in his skin. He blamed his problems with pigmentation on the skin condition, vitiligo. But few people believed him in part because he had chosen to have his nose whittled down via plastic surgery and his once curly hair chemically straightened.

Interestingly, it’s not just some people with African ancestry who covet light skin. Here on Exploring Race we’ve talked about the role light skin has played in other parts of the world. In China, light skin in often preferred because it speaks of one’s higher economic class. In some parts of India, parents are known to seek mates for their children who have light skin so that their grandchildren have a better shot at having a “fairer” complexion. In Brazil and Japan, skin lightening creams re a big business.  

This all reminds  me of  Rev. Joseph Lowery’s inauguration benediction when he said “Lord… we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get back, when brown can stick around , yellow will be mellow … “

Is Sosa bleaching his skin? Should we care? There's a larger question here that has to do with perpetuating stereotypes and certain standards of beauty. It's why some people were upset in 2008 when singer Beyonce's skin appeared to be lightened in a group of L'Oreal ads for hair coloring products. 

But this is about Sosa. What do you think?

Photo credit: Sosa in 1989 with Texas, in 2004 with the Cubs and recently in Las Vegas. (AP / Tribune / Getty)

In an email to students, Northwestern University President Morton Schapiro expressed his disappointment: “While I fully support the principles of free expression, at the same time I am deeply disappointed to see any examples of insensitivity that demeans a segment of our community.”  

To be clear, blackface is indeed racially offensive and smart kids should and do know better. 

Historically blackface was about the perpetuation of narrow, ugly and stereotypical depictions of blacks. But has the history of black face been watered down by its modern day likeness in such entertainers as, say, Flava Flav?

I wrote a column about his minstrel show, VH1’s “Flavor of Love,” three years ago and watched, no endured, one episode. The TV series is a knock-off of ABC’s “The Bachelor,” a more upscale pimp show.   

Over the years so many previously taboo topics have been parodied and sometimes in an effort to deconstruct them and remove the sting.  

Susie Essman of HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm” talked about such irreverence in comedy last night on WTTW’s “Chicago Tonight” show.  She mentioned that Catholics were offended about a scene in which star Larry David flushes a toilet and is taken aback when water splashes on a nearby picture of Jesus and makes it appear he has a tear.

But back to the Northwestern students. Here’s what’s going to happen: There will be some type of diversity/racial sensitivity jam session. It’s what Original Mother’s bar on Division street has agreed to undergo after it recently refused admission to six black students from Washington University in St. Louis for wearing baggy pants. 

But it all seems so perfunctory. It’s not like people have to learn that discrimination or insensitivity is wrong. They know it's wrong. And, when no illegal act has been committed, this is more about caring and really that's harder if not impossible to teach. 

In the case of the students, maybe their intent was to be provocative and irreverent. This is not at all to give stupidity absolution---maybe just some perspective.

What do you think?

The photo comes from a student's Facebook page.

Keith Bardwell, the Louisiana justice of the peace who came under fire for refusing to marry an interracial couple, has resigned. (Click here to read the story.)

Bardwell had said he was concerned about the future children of Beth Humphrey, 30, and her boyfriend Terence McKay, 32, both of Hammond, Louisiana. The couple, who were married by another justice of the peace, filed a federal discrimination lawsuit against Bardwell and his wife, Beth Bardwell, on October 20, claiming the two violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

During ESPN's broadcast of the Minnesota-Ohio State game last weekend, a graphic was shown listing the top five drivers in NASCAR's points race. ESPN analyst Chris Spielman asked broadcaster Bob Griese where was NASCAR driver Juan Pablo Montoya, who is Colombian. (Click here to read the Associated Press story.)

Griese replied Montoya was "out having a taco." The broadcaster promptly was suspended for one week for the comment.

Some readers have said people should lighten up. Griese, who’s not the first sports broadcaster to open mouth and insert foot, only was making an off-color joke. Why do we have to be so politically correct? Why was the remark so offensive?

The quick answer: It’s offensive because it’s unfair to define someone based on a stereotype---even a seemingly benign one. It distills all of his or her accomplishments, characteristics down to one trite thing---in this case, taco consumption.

What are your thoughts? Was the comment an offense worthy of suspension?

According to this story by the Associated Press: 

No more Martin (Mahr-TEEN). It was plain-old Martin. No more Marcos. Now it would be Mark. Whitten's management style had worked for him as he's turned around other distressed hotels he bought in recent years across the country. The 63-year-old Texan, however, wasn't prepared for what followed. His rules and his firing of several Hispanic employees angered his employees and many in this liberal enclave of 5,000 residents at the base of the Sangre de Cristo mountains, where the most alternative of lifestyles can find a home and where Spanish language, culture and traditions have a long and revered history.

Whitten also said he asked his workers to not speak Spanish in his presence, because he didn’t understand Spanish and was concerned that they might be talking about him. He said he has never made such a request before.

But Whitten isn’t the only one with designs on Hispanics speaking English. The Dallas Morning News reports that Dallas police officers ticketed at least 39 drivers over the last three years for not speaking English. The police chief has promised to investigate all officers involved in the cases.  Those drivers who paid the $204 fine for the charge, which is not an official amount and doesn’t exist on any official books, will be reimbursed, the Police Chief David Kunkle told the Morning News.  Pending cases will be dismissed.

This case is almost a no-brainer if challenged in a court of law.

But what do you think about the Whitten case? Whitten should have known that his actions might do anything from stir up trouble to prompt discrimination lawsuits. Is asking an employee to modify his or her name too far reaching? What if the person is from another ethnic group with a name that’s difficult to pronounce?  Employers have dress codes in place. Why isn't it OK to have some rules governing names if  hard-to-pronounce names could affect business?

For Regis Murayi, the weekend of Oct. 17 was supposed to be a weekend of fun and revelry in Chicago. But Murayi, a 21-year-old senior at Washington University in St. Louis, said that what he got was a more sobering lesson in the importance of standing up to racism. Murayi, who helped organize the class trip for over 171 students, said that while he and his fellow seniors were trying to enter Original Mother’s bar, 26 W. Division St, he and five other black students were denied admission into the club. He said the manager told them it was because they wore baggy pants. But Murayi, a Maryland native, believes the incident was not about their style of clothing, but the color of their skin. This is Regis Murayi's essay: 

Upon arriving at the Original Mother’s bar for a pre-arranged event organized by the Washington University Senior Class council, I (the treasurer of the Senior Class Council) and five other black students on the trip (including the Senior Class Council Vice President) were denied admission into the bar. (Click here to read the Tribune's story.)

The bar’s manager told us we couldn’t enter because we wore “baggy pants.” We offered to change our clothes and even had a shorter white student wear a pair of our jeans to verify that the issue was not actually the size and style of our pants.  Unfortunately, this student was admitted without question, confirming that our rejection had nothing to do with dress code.

As black men, I and the rest of the members in our group were not surprised by the manager’s behavior. Unfortunate as it is, similar events happen so frequently that we have effectively become desensitized by them and are almost immune to them.   After negotiating with the manager was to no avail, we saw nothing else we could do except leave and find another establishment that would take us in. However, the reactions of other members of our class were very different.  Many of our white friends---who have not encountered these types of affronts ---- were outright appalled by what happened at Mother’s that night. They refused to stand for it, and immediately began thinking of what they could do in response. 

These students taught me a valuable lesson. Though we may have experienced discrimination throughout our lives, we as African-Americans cannot become complacent and accept prejudice when it occurs. Instead, we must fight hard against it in order to enact positive change. Being blessed with the privilege of education and a network of resources around us, we believe it is our responsibility to fight the tough fights for ourselves, but also for those who don’t have the ability to fight for themselves.

As unfortunate as that night was, I cannot begin to explain how humbled I have been by the outpouring of support my African-American peers and I have received.  Numerous people have personally reached out to me to express their disgust with what happened that night, and their embarrassment that blatant discrimination still exists in what many people have claimed is a post-racial America. It is encouraging to see people rally around this issue and make it clear that in 2009, racist activity should not be tolerated and those who participate in it and encourage it should be punished. I think this is a true testament as to how far we have come with race relations and gives me hope that someday we as Americans can and will finally live in a post-racial society.

It upsets me that in their first public response to the events that night, representatives of Mother’s said they didn’t let us in because they were concerned about gang violence in the area. But, that night, they told us that we couldn’t come in because of our baggy jeans. What really perplexes me is how we could have been viewed as a possible gang when---in talking to the manager--- I immediately identified myself  as a member of the Senior Class Council at Washington University. I explained that we were all students simply attempting to get into a bar at which we had a prearranged agreement.

Far too often people utilize racist stereotypes as a way to group African-Americans into a uniform population of thugs and gangsters, failing to realize that African-Americans, just like any other racial group, are a multiform population of individuals with variations of thoughts, habits, dress, socioeconomic conditions, educational backgrounds, and professional aspirations. 

I am sick and tired being judged solely on the color of my skin and not by the content of my character. Until people are able to let go of these racist stereotypes and call into question their own thoughts and beliefs regarding race, racism – and consequently discrimination - will persist in our society. One blogger made assumptions about the way we were dressed, referring to us as “some ghetto hood rats with saggy drawers” without any prior knowledge as to exactly how we were dressed.

I can assure you that we were dressed conservatively casual, wearing our jeans around our waists, and that our jeans were not excessively baggy.  That night, I was wearing a dress shirt with a pea coat, a nice pair of designer jeans, and some white loafers.  The rest of our group was dressed similarly, and to automatically assume that we were dressed otherwise is a reflection of the ignorance that continues to be pervasive in our society.
 

Photo of Regis Murayi courtesy of Murayi.

But there’s another story of an interracial relationship that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) are hoping to keep front and center. 

McCain is pressing President Barack Obama to give a posthumous pardon to Jack Johnson, the black heavyweight boxing champion who was imprisoned in 1913 because of his romantic ties with a white woman.

Justice Department lawyers at the time argued that Johnson’s sexual relationship with a white woman was a "crime against nature."

In a letter last week to Obama, McCain and King reminded the president that both houses of Congress---the House on July 29 and the Senate on June 24---passed their resolution urging a pardon. The two had written to Obama in August with the same request.

"Regrettably, we have not received a response from you or any member of your administration," the lawmakers wrote in Friday's letter. They said they hoped that Obama would "right this wrong and erase an act of racism that sent an American citizen to prison."

The White House had no immediate comment.

Johnson was convicted of violating the Mann Act, which made it illegal to transport a woman across state lines for immoral purposes. He fled the country after his conviction but came back years later and served nearly a year in prison.

Johnson became the first black heavyweight champion on Dec. 26, 1908. He won the title after a 14-round match in Australia during which he beat Canadian world champion, Tommy Burns, so badly that police had to stop the match.

That led to a search for a "Great White Hope" who could beat Johnson. Two years later, Jim Jeffries, the American world titleholder, came out of retirement to fight Johnson but lost in a match deemed "The Battle of the Century," which ended in deadly riots across the country.

McCain has said that he made a mistake by voting against making Martin Luther King Jr’s  birthday a federal  holiday and hopes this helps make amends.

Do you think the pardon is important, or is it a smokescreen for something political?

Photo: Jack Johnson's 1910 defeat of Jim Jeffries, the "Great White Hope," sparked riots. Photo credit: Getty Images

From the story: Some of the tension can be attributed to cultural differences that all immigrants face, though the West Africans in Claremont, as conservative Muslims, have the added challenge of adjusting to a post-9/11 New York. But resentment and mistrust has escalated to actual violence, and, they say, left them feeling under siege. After reports of nearly two dozen attacks on West African immigrants in the last two years, community leaders reached out to the police, who interviewed 17 Africans in the neighborhood and filed 11 criminal complaints. Two of those were deemed hate crimes, including an attack in June that left a Gambian immigrant hospitalized for eight days. They have made no arrest in either bias case, but a police mobile truck with a video camera now stands outside the mosque. (Click here to read the full story.)

The first came last week when Cook County Board President Todd Stroger won the backing of nearly 90 African-American ministers who not only endorsed Stroger, but encouraged his black opponents to drop out of the Feb. 2 Democratic Primary to unify the black vote.

The second came just days before when Washington D.C. Council Member Marion Barry (yes, that Marion Barry) said Ximena Hartsock, who’s Hispanic, shouldn’t be the director of the district’s Department of Parks and Recreation because she doesn’t understand black culture.

Both cases perpetuate the stale notion that blacks should vote as a monolith rather than in their best interest; and that only blacks should represent blacks.

First, the Cook County Board President: Stroger formally kicked off his re-election campaign last week with the backing of nearly 90 African-American ministers who say they favor him over three other black candidates in the contest.

What was pretty disturbing about this endorsement was that the ministers had the gall not just to suggest that Cook County’s blacks get behind Stroger---who has abysmal job approval ratings—but that his black opponents in the primary drop out. 

“This community needs a unified front to address the issues that are pressing against our people,” said the Rev. John Richard Bryant, senior bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Indeed there are communities in great peril. But how is Stroger the right candidate to help fix things? And how is he so right that the other black candidates should leave the race? 

According to a late August Tribune/WGN poll, only 1 in 10 Cook County voters approve of the job he is doing, and just as few want to see him re-elected following a first term in which he championed a sales tax hike and hired too many of his friends and relatives.

Stroger’s numbers were lower than the 13 percent Gov. Rod Blagojevich had just months before the feds arrested him last December on corruption charges.

Now to Marion Berry: According to the Washington Post, the D.C. Council engaged in a long debate and then voted Oct. 6 to block Ximena Hartsock from becoming head of an agency that’s already had seven permanent or interim directors over the past decade.

The Post reported: “The vote followed a contentious hearing Friday night that brought cries of racial and ethnic bias after council member Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) implied that Hartsock, who is Hispanic, did not understand black culture.”

In a statement, Mayor Adrian Fenty called Hartsock a "stellar candidate" and said she "has excelled in every challenge she's been given both as an educator and as the interim director of this agency."

Some council members said they opposed Hartsock, who holds a Ph.D. in education and has been a school principal, because she wasn’t qualified for the parks job.  I’m not certain why that would be problematic for a parks director, but it’s one thing to oppose her because of her professional background.

But to suggest that she doesn’t know how black people play solely because she’s Hispanic, is another matter entirely.

It’s playing racial politics as usual and it stinks. 

photo credit: Ximena Hartsock, then acting director of the D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation, joins Mayor Adrian M. Fenty for the kickoff of swimming pool season in May. She has Fenty's support in her bid for the job, but not the council's. (By Sarah L. Voisin -- The Washington Post)

I don’t like beauty contests of any kind. But here’s a troubling story about Nikole Churchill who last week won a beauty contest to become Hampton University’s first white homecoming queen. Hampton is a historically black university in Virginia.

Churchill sent a letter to President Barack Obama complaining that her win had been questioned on campus because of her skin color. 

After Churchill’s letter riled students at Hampton, the nursing student issued a public apology on the university’s website, saying she took "the comments of a few and blew them out of all proportion."

Churchill had written to Obama asking for help and suggesting that he visit Hampton to convince students to "stop focusing so much on the color of my skin and doubting my abilities to represent, but rather be proud of the changes our nation is making towards accepting diversity.

"I am hoping that you can assist me in opening some closed minds," Churchill wrote.

“It would be much easier to say that possibly some were not accepting of the news because I wasn’t the most qualified contestant; however, the true reason for the disapproval was because of the color of my skin. I am not African American."

A person who claimed to be a graduate of Hampton said on the Essence magazine website that Churchill was not “in tune with the wants, needs, and desires of the student body at large.

"Although some are outraged by her race, I think most are upset because this young lady has no ties to the student body. She is a transfer student who attends an HU satellite campus. She has never lived in a dorm, eaten in the cafe, or spent time in the Student Center."

Churchill is expected to be formally crowned on Oct. 21, during Hampton’s week-long homecoming celebration.

Last September, I wrote a story about African-American actress/producer Daphne Maxwell Reid and the abuse she received from white students at Northwestern University when she became the school’s first black homecoming queen in 1967.

As I said before, I don’t like beauty contests… but I like double standards even less.

If Churchill won the honor of being the school’s homecoming queen, then she should be treated with the same dignity afforded her predecessors.

Let me know what you think.