In the News: Stand Your Ground, FAMU and Junior Seau

Portrayals of people of color are fairly stereotypical: victims or perpetrators of crimes, athletes and celebrities. The mainstream homepages do offer a few surprises, though, such as Shawn Stockman of Boyz II Men discussing his son’s autism.

Crime coverage . . . 

Marissa Alexander lost a “stand your ground” defense because Florida courts say the mother of three hadn’t exhausted all options for protection against abuse.  This is on HuffPost as well as on Loop21.

. . . Charges have been filed in the FAMU hazing case. HuffPost and The Grio are among those reporting the latest.

. . . The Miami Herald unearthed George Zimmerman’s old My Space page and found racist speech toward Mexicans. There’s coverage on Slate and The Grio. 

. . . The case of Daniel Chong, the college student who was left in a holding cell for five days, is news on Slate and HuffPost.

Celebrity and politics . . . 

On HuffPost, Shawn Stockman talks about his son’s autism.

. . . Vice President Biden’s Cinco de Mayo celebration makes news.

. . . The Daily Beast reports that Usher and Rick Ross are among recording artists with releases scheduled for this summer .

. . . Slate links to The Root’s retrospective on “The Cosby Show.”

Athletes . . . 

There’s plenty of coverage regarding the apparent suicide of Junior Seau: 

• The Daily Beast: Sudden Suicide of NFL Great Junior Seau Baffles Fans
• Slate: Junior Seau Dead 

. . .  And, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ symbolic drafting of Eric LeGrand, who is paralyzed, is noted.

Once you get past those categories, you have a PBS documentary on Latino history.  Both HuffPost and Mario Wire report on the 6-hour documentary.  

Another point of view . . . 

The ethnic sites provide another perspective with a look at the limbo that undocumented students live in after high school graduation, a discussion of when blackface can work and a report on cyber bullying among teen-age girls. Here are those highlights, and a few others:

Mario Wire looks at the displacement of undocumented students after high school, and efforts to pass the Dream ACT . . .Cuba is considering easing travel restrictions  

. . . Latinos and presidential politics are also considered as Mario Wire posts on Mitt Romney’s standing and The Grio looks at Latino support for the President.

. . . Shaquille O’Neal has earned a doctorate in education. That’s on Loop21 and HuffPost

. . . Cornel West thinks the President is a disaster, but that’s better than his assessment of Mitt Romney as a catastrophe.  The post on Loop21 comes from HuffPost but didn’t make its homepage.

. . . Cyber bullying is blamed for a fight between teen girls at a Chicago public school.

. . . The Root links to an essay arguing that the use of black face on “30 Rock” worked . . . But Ashton Kutcher’s efforts to go Bollywood didn’t. There are posts on The Grio and HuffPost.

. . . There’s still discussion of Condoleezza Rice in the VP sweepstakes.

. . . Finally, the “gymwrap” is supposed to preserve black women’s hair when they work out.