“We want to celebrate this black man,” Mr. Foxx said of Michael Jackson. “He belongs to us and we shared him with everybody else.” - Jamie Foxx, (from the New York Times)

Each day the media cloud over Michael Jackson's death mushrooms broader and wider with rumor, speculation, and tidbits of fact. Yesterday morning the big story was that Katherine Jackson, Michael Jackson's mother, has been awarded guardianship of all three of his children, Michael Joseph Jackson, Jr. aka Prince; Paris Michael Katherine; and Prince Michael Jackson II aka "Blanket."

BET gave out their annual music awards last night.  I'm going to be straight up right now and say I didn't watch it.  That's right, I'm the BlogHer TV Contributing Editor and I didn't watch that TV show. In fact the only way my cable box ever lands on the dreaded BET channel is if my finger slips on the remote.  Then I make sure to get the heck out of there before my eyeballs fry and my blood boils.

It is my belief that most Americans think that HIV/AIDS is now a global problem and almost eradicated in the United States. Sadly, this is far from the truth. According to the CDC, in 2006 approximately 1.1 million people in the United States are living with HIV and 1 in 5 are undiagnosed. Twenty-one percent!

 RIP Michael Jackson. My thoughts go out to his family.

Have you heard of Gina McCauley?  If you haven't, listen up--this is a woman who's on the cutting edge of the internet and social media and you need to get to know her right now.  If you do know who she is, read the following interview anyway, because I defy you not to be inspired by her story, her passion and her good old fashioned smarts.  Just the kind of black woman the MSM almost never talks about.

Blogger Angel Laws started her blog Concrete Loop with five dollars in her pocket. That was just about four years ago.  Now Angel says she gets 700,000 unique visitors a day and makes about $250,000 a year through ads on her blog.  Her advice for bloggers during last weekend's Blogging While Brown conference in Chicago:

"Fish where your buyers swim," said Milton Haynes of Blacks Gone Geek. Before you hit publish, check your headline, "That's the most strategic choice you're about to make," said Megan Tady of Save The Internet.com.  "Own your digital real estate," said Hajj E. Flemings, branding expert and author of "The Brand YU Life." These quotes came from presenters at last weekend's 2nd annual Blogging While Brown conference held at the University Center in Chicago.  It's the kind of advice that's important for all bloggers but the attendees of BWB got that and much more.

Recently The Root.com posted two very interesting commentaries about the state of black relationships in the post-Obama era. The first, written by Jeneé Desmond-Harris argues that one of the reasons why 45% of black women are unmarried, versus 23% of white women, is because black women are too picky.

Not the salt of the earth but the sugar of affluent youth, Abercrombie & Fitch with its image of sexy college prep gods and goddesses is the bastion of unabashed elitism, promoting the perfect clothes, the perfect fit, and the perfect body. It's alleged that this image goes beyond its slick print ads to the brick and mortar floor of its stores from which a disabled employee shouts that A&F discriminates against mortals such as she.From the UK's Daily Mail:

Anne Frank would have been 80 years old on June 12th.  How ironic that within days of this anniversary, once again Jews were attacked - this time at the Holocaust Museum, a place designed to memorialize the victims, including Anne, of the Holocaust itself.  It's an ironic reminder of what all our mothers  - and most of our rabbis -- told us -- that there will always be people who hate Jews and that they will always find ways to try to hurt us - singly or in great numbers.

Tomorrow night will mark a little bit of television history.  That's because "HawthoRNe" starring Jada Pinkett Smith will premiere on TNT.   "HawthoRNe" is an hour long drama about a widowed, single Mom who's the Chief Nursing Officer at a Richmond, Virginia hospital.  She's caring, compassionate, and though a little unconventional, she's a woman who follows the rules but doesn't take any crap.  Nurse Hawthorne is black.