With significantly lighter skin and green contact lenses during an appearance at the Latin Grammys, baseball great Sammy Sosa has found himself at the center of controversy. Just how did this Dominican's skin go from dark brown to pallid?

The former Chicago slugger told Univision reporter Tony Dandrades that a European skin cream caused his skin color to lighten, EURweb.com reported.

Read more...

Founding CNN anchor Lou Dobbs announced his resignation from the network Nov. 11, despite the fact that his contract didn't expire for two more years. Latino advocacy groups are not only cheering the move but taking credit for it. That's because they campaigned for Dobbs to be removed from the network for misrepresenting immigrants and Hispanics generally.

Dobbs, for example, was forced to apologize after characterizing the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce as "an organization that is interested in Mexico's export of drugs and illegal aliens to the United States," NPR reported.

To boot, he blamed Latin American immigrants for a rise in leprosy cases in the States, despite the fact that incidences of leprosy haven't notably risen in the U.S.

Read more...

The film "Precious" premiered in select cities Nov. 6, and reviews are pouring in about the movie with a Harlem teen whose life transforms through education. To say that the circumstances of Precious Jones' life are bleak would be an understatement. Precious is illiterate, living with HIV and has been victimized by her parents in numerous ways, including sexually. Her father has twice impregnated her, and one child she's borne by him suffers from Down syndrome.

"Precious" tackles an array of issues. Because the protagonist is black, however, both the media and the public have raised questions about its effect on race relations. Read more...

When I posted a blog about Harry Connick Jr. objecting to a group of Australian performers wearing blackface, many readers suggested that it was silly to take offense to the Jackson Jive's performance because group members were of Indian and Lebanese descent and, therefore, couldn't be racist. I tried to explain that the ethnicity of the performers was irrelevant, as people of color are capable of racist behavior as well.

Tyra Banks of "America's Next Top Model" is a case in point. The supermodel-turned-television personality created an uproar last week when her show featured white contestants in dark makeup. The goal was to make the girls appear to be biracial. Banks called it a "fashion interpretation" of culture.

Read more...