With politicians hitting the campaign trail, race-baiting rhetoric is in full swing. Just look at Rick Santorum’s recent welfare gaffe and unbelievably weak explanation for it.  I mean ‘blah’ people. Really? Spin doctors earn gazillions to come up with ‘blah’?

The blonde wig in Leigh’s video works like reverse black face. It acknowledges the fraught history of hair, race and beauty and makes us laugh and/or cringe in recognition.  Parody works because it contains a hard kernel of truth.  It holds up a skewed mirror that reflects our complicated relationships in a way that avoids the slick predictability of American melodramas. ( I’m looking at you Monster’s Ball, Crash, The Blind Side.) Richard Pryor held up this same skewed mirror decades ago and so did Whoopi Goldberg as Little Girl  – a character who wraps a towel around her head  longing to be white, blond and beautiful.

Now imagine a cultural studies class where the professor curses like a drunk sailor and the stadium-sized classroom includes a healthy mix of liberal admirers, far right wackos, and the culturally clueless. Tumblr site “Yo, is this racist?” uses scathing humor to bring anonymous racial discourse to its logical extreme. Ever notice how a seemingly innocuous news story can devolve into a race war in the comments section? The anonymity of the internet brings out closeted bigots in droves. With a simple premise, YITR invites readers to submit questions about whether something is racist. The questions are alternately sad, hilarious, and heartbreaking. YITR works because it’s brutally honest, brutally funny and, in the end, strangely sincere.

“Sh*t White Girls Say To… Black Girls”

Wait, White Women Fight? Does It Make Them Look Bad Too?

Drake Talks Being Biracial: “I Don’t Even Notice Color”

In the clip, a tiny “alien” corpse, (much like the stereotypical image of aliens promoted after the Roswell incident) lies in the snow, with translucent flesh, hollowed out eye sockets and a mangled body, for it appears to have suffered horrific injuries- namely the loss of one limb. Fox News report that the lifeless body was (supposedly) discovered lying in snow in the Irkutsk region of southern Siberia following reports of a UFO crash in the area last month. According to Fox;

“shocked villagers had told of seeing a pink and blue glowing object hurtling towards the town before the alien was found. The bizarre reports were taken so seriously, they were investigated by the country’s Emergencies Ministry staff. The mystery deepened when investigators said no aircraft were reported in the area. And search and rescue teams found no evidence of an aircraft crash.”

According to Bobbie, the judge granted Steve a temporary injuction against those YouTube videos that Mary made, and gave the Harveys a “contempt of court” hearing date for March 10, 2011. When the Harveys appear in court on that date, it will be to decide if Mary should be sanctioned or punished for violating the couple’s gag order.

READ THE REST HERE

Steve Harvey Takes Ex-Wife To Court Over You Tube Videos

Joyner, invited her to encourage her to “move on” from her 2005 divorce, but Mary refused to take the host’s advice.

“It took a long time for me to get to this point,” she explained to Joyner,  “The reason I’ve been silent this entire time is because I did take into consideration what it would do to both of our families and our community.”

But she said she decided to publicly discuss the fall of her marriage because “keeping quiet hasn’t served me physically. It hasn’t served our son [Wynton]. I have suffered physically because of it. I’m not in good health right now.”

Take a look:

Steve Harvey Takes Ex-Wife To Court Over You Tube Videos

Steve Harvey’s Wife Marjorie Harvey Planning Lawsuit Against Ex-Wife

Mary posted a three videos on YouTube over the weekend where she says Steve was a cheater and that his current wife, Marjorie, had an affair with Steve while he was still married to Mary.

A judge set a date of February 7 to hear Steve’s request for sanctions against Mary.

Steve Harvey Hit With 2.1 Million Tax Lien

Should 3-Time Hubby Steve Harvey REALLY Be A Love Columnist?

The internet is a place where people can share much of themselves with the world nowadays. You might not think much of it, but when you’re on places like Facebook, BlackPlanet, Youtube, or Myspace, you’re projecting an image of yourself and most of the time, it’s not the same as who you are in real life. In rare cases, the person you’re projecting online is a good representation of you (for example, musical talent) and in that case, the internet is able to bring you the recognition you deserve.

Online internet sensations aren’t as rare as you think (for example, Antoine Dodson’s intruder speech (go to the 1:00 mark)), but they certainly aren’t the norm and it takes a lot of luck for online talent to take off. In the case of Antoine Dodson, he didn’t really mean to become popular. His rant about intruders were meant to bring attention to his sister’s attacker and bring justice for his family, rather than self-promotion. However, it was his unintentional wit and (albeit dark) humor that brought him fame in the end, since the talent was there and social networking sites as well as blogs were helpful in spreading an auto-tune version of his rant as a legitimate iTunes song. Antoine Dodson is one of many internet sensations that have blown up from a creative, sometimes unintentional rant that lots of people have just happened to watch. Viral videos or ideas that come from the internet are important for our culture today, as it’s a new way that gossip travels besides word of mouth. I’ve seen videos posted on Facebook and then get really popular for a while, even though it’s unclear how that popularity was achieved. It’s interesting to observe how quickly people learn about the weirdest scenarios from forwarded messages on the internet and that’s how they get their “news” about pop culture as a whole.

Since anyone can have a blog on BlackPlanet or post a Youtube video, it’s the free-for-all of our culture that sparks creativity in anyone who has the ideas to put out there. Hellobeautiful is another example of a collection of ideas that come from the internet and inspire people to think outside of the box. Many of the blog posts are originals by the bloggers themselves, which is a really strong way to get different points of view out to an audience. People don’t frequently analyze the true way that ideas get out to the public in this technological age, but it’s the work of millions of people who have stuff they want to share with others and post their videos, blog posts, and general musings to anyone who will listen. By seeing that the internet is a bigger influence in our lives than we might think, it’s easier to see why viral videos like Dodson’s can bring the “5 minutes of fame” that’s also popular in other mediums like reality television or gossip magazines.

Social Networking Vs. Real Life: Is There A Difference Anymore?

One of the most creative videos I’ve seen in a while that I found on Urlesque is of a Youtube singer, Destorm who decided to do his own original versions of cartoon themes from the last 20 years or so in 5 segments of video. It’s a really innovative and creative project which makes it easy to see how he’s sparked some internet fame. Technology has changed the way people receive ideas and express themselves to the general public, since even in the next 10 to 20 years, this “information age” could evolve again. Creativity has been changing from paper-and-pencil to digital, so Destorm certainly won’t be the last to have his talent praised by total strangers in cyberspace.

Watch the video below and ask yourselves these questions: Where will be 10 years from now if this is the direction the internet is taking? Do you use the internet as a way to express yourself?

Don’t Let Technology Mess Up Real Life Relationships

Yesterday, Alicia Keys aired the live stream of her benefit concert for World AIDS Day on YouTube. In case you missed it, here’s her performance. The event featured the debut of new material from Keys’ upcoming ‘The Element of Freedom’, as well as special guest Jay-Z. ‘The Element of Freedom’ hits stores on December 15th. Peep the performances below:

“TRY SLEEPING WITH A BROKEN HEART”

“DISTANCE & TIME”

Alicia & Bey Share Duet On “Element of Freedom”

“FALLIN’”

“NO ONE”

NEW VIDEO: Alicia’s “Sleeping With A Broken Heart”

“WRECKLESS LOVE”

“EMPIRE STATE OF MIND, PART II”

The singer will be featured in “Alicia Keys Live! One Night…One Voice… One Life at a Time…” an 8 p.m. ET performance tonight at the Nokia Theater in New York. The show will be recorded and streamed live on Keys official YouTube channel.

In recognition of World AIDS Day (today), Alicia Keys and American Express are bringing fans together for a special charity concert, so fans across the globe can also participate and donate to Keep A Child Alive, of which Keys is co-founder and global ambassador. American Express cardmembers and lucky contest winners from AliciaKeys.com, Facebook and radio will be attending this exclusive live performance where Alicia will share insight into her charitable work and perform some of her greatest hits as well as songs from her new album “The Element of Freedom,” set for a December 15 release.

All ticket proceeds will go to the organization, and you can do the same by visiting www.keepachildalive.com or by texting “ALIVE” to 90999 to give $5.

NEW MUSIC: Alicia’s “Empire State Of Mind, Part II”

NEW VIDEO: Alicia’s “Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart”

Three years ago, a then-2o-year-old Dondria began uploading videos to YouTube. They were of her singing solo renditions of R&B tracks originally done by everybody from Musiq Soulchild and Keri Hilson to Beyonce and Chrisette Michele. Her fans and followers (now at 2.8 million) requested, rated, and raved about her voice and talent so much so that the young singer from Texas caught the eye of Jermaine Dupri. However, she’d been going under the alias of “Phatfffat,” a nickname given to her by her college roommate. Luckily, for her and her future success, she and JD decided to retreat back to her real name – after all we can’t see “Phatfffat” in big lights above a stage.

Now, 23, Dondria has become the newest member to sign on to the So So Def roster. JD says, “Dondria is like a young Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey or Alicia Keys. There is nothing that the girl can’t sing.” We’ll have to wait until next year for her official debut album, but she’s given us an amazing mixtape, entitled “Duets,” to hold us over until then. On it, she delivers her very own versions (from the female perspective, of course) of Maxwell’s “Pretty Wings,” Robin Thicke’s “Sex Therapy,” Trey Songz’ “Invented Sex,” and more! Hear it here!

HEAR HER COVER OF USHER’S “LOVERS & FRIENDS”:

HB: What made you decide to put yourself out there and upload YouTube videos for all the public to see?
Dondria: I wanted to see how people who didn’t know me, people who weren’t my family and friends, what their honest opinion was. I knew they weren’t gonna be biased. I’d been singing since I was three, I grew up in church and I’ve always been in the youth choir, so I don’t think I’ve ever had a problem with the camera. I thought people would like it, but I just didn’t know it was gonna get that big, I’m still speechless when I think about it.

How did JD get in contact with you?
He told me that he hit me up on YouTube but I never got that message. The first one I was aware of was when he wrote me on MySpace, but I didn’t think it was him. I was getting so many emails, messages, requests to work and sign, but most of it was bogus, so by the time he came around, I was like, “This is not real, don’t lie to me.” But he was really persistent. All he said was he wanted to do a video of me and Jagged Edge and that he’d fly me and my mom out to Atlanta. It was actually the night of their listening party. So, I met him in person and that’s when he actually said, “I wanna work with you, are you ready for this, is this something that you wanna do?” And I was like, “Oh, ok, cuz I just thought u called me to do a YouTube video and my feelings were so hurt!”

Who would be your dream artist to work with?
I would love to open up for Beyonce, I am so jealous of [the group] Rich Girl, I would love to open up for her. Even Janet. I would love to open Monica, too.

HEAR HER COVER OF BEYONCE’S “SMASH INTO YOU”:

What is ‘Phatfffat’?
My college roommate actually gave me that nickname. We had just met at orientation and we clicked immediately. Later that night, we went to CiCi’s Pizza and I just do what I do, I wasn’t thinking (laughs). I always get my salad, my pasta, and then I pile a plate with pizza; it’s a buffet! And as I finished it all, she was like “You know what? I’m gonna call you ‘Phatfffat’ because that’s out of control.” But I feel like if I was a rapper, then I could have been like, “Phatfffat in the building!!!,” but I’m not gonna be an R&B artist (and hopefully successful) and then be announced as “Phatfffat” to come on stage and accept something.

We’ve seen plenty of artists debut with one image, and in a years time, drastically change. How do you plan on dealing with that?
I think the beauty of me signing with JD is I don’t think I’ll have that problem. I understand that I will have to grow up but I feel like he understands that growing up doesn’t necessarily mean growing naked. I can mature in a different way. All the greats didn’t have to do that extra stuff, like Brandy, Monica, Whitney, Aretha – none of them, so I don’t feel like I need to. But also, I’m gonna be 23, and I think at 25 or 30, I’ll still look 18. When I did the mixtape, I did the Top 10 male R&B songs. And 7 or 8 of those were talking about sex and everybody was like, “We can’t believe your singing this!,” cuz they think I’m, like, 16!

Let’s not talk about where you wanna see yourself in 10 years, what do you want to achieve in the near future?
I would like pee my pants if I got Best New Artist of the year, I would pee my pants. That’s what I want so bad, cuz then that means that I gave my best first impression. That would be really really big. The thing that I’m looking most forward to is honestly doing the big tour, the whole big show, a 2 hour show, fans screaming “Dondria!,” that’s the part that I can’t wait for.

HEAR HER FIRST OFFICIAL SINGLE, “YOU’RE THE ONE,” BELOW:

Check Dondria out below: