Just as soon as you thought the latest Barack Obama controversy would die down a little bit, some enterprising young fellow with the ability to type decided it was worthy of its own Cafe Press gear. (You know: T-shirts, panties, coffee mugs, etc.)

Clearly, the only truly effective way to protest the re-racialization of American politics is the purchase of this “Typical White Person” tote bag. Its roomy interior can fit six months’ worth of irony.

Typical White Person [Cafe Press]

My grandmother’s a “typical white person” [The Mighty Dan Gross]

The Mighty Dan Gross accidentally kicked over the Barack Obama apple cart yesterday when he publicized a throw-away comment in which the Illinois senator recklessly, if not purposely, insinuated that his white grandmother, long fearful of encountering black men on the street, was a “typical white person.”

The online political world buzzed, the news tickers chugged, and then Obama sat down on Larry King Live last night and had to expand on and defensively explain his comments to the pointy-shouldered talk show host in the best way possible:

[W]hat I meant really was that some of the fears of street crime and some of the stereotypes that go along with that, you know, were responses that I think many people feel. She’s not extraordinary in that regard. She’s somebody who I love as much as anybody. I mean, she has literally helped to raise me.
 
But those are fears that are embedded in our culture and embedded in our society. And, you know, even within our own families, even within a family like mine that is diverse, you know, there are those gaps in understanding or the stereotypes that are fed by the news media and fed by what we see around us and, you know, in our popular culture.

Yeah, you know?

Obama’s poorly chosen words, the bigger picture [The Swamp]

Former Inquirer writer (now full-time blogger) Stephen A. Smith may face some more career-downsizing in the near future. The basketball windbag’s radio show, which he co-hosts on New York’s ESPN 1050 with ex-WIP talker/producer/pugilist Mike Missanelli, is reportedly about to get yanked.

The Mighty Dan Gross pounced all over the Neil Best item in Newsday today that suggested ESPN is “reassessing” Smith’s role. The scrappy MDG then got this direct quote from Stephen A. himself:

“No decision has been made yet. My radio show has been very successful, but it is true that ESPN definitely wants me to focus more on television. Whatever decision they make I will support it. But nothing has been decided or finalized yet.”

The way Stephen A.’s year is going, next week we’ll hear that ESPN’s relegating him to International Strongman Competition correspondent.

ESPN’s yanking Stephen A. off the radio? [Mighty Dan Gross]

The silence in Drexel’s Global Ethical Issues class that follows a flighty professor’s calling out “Kirsch, Jocelyn Kirsch” during roll every Tuesday and Thursday has become comical. The students not awaiting trial on identity theft and other charges just quietly snicker to themselves without letting the professor know: “We kind of look at each other and laugh,” one would-be classmate tells Daily News Kirsch-breaker Regina Medina.

The prof & absent ‘Bonnie’ [The Mighty Dan Gross]

So says the Mighty Dan Gross, whose relentless pursuit of the melodramatic trials and tribulations of Philadelphia’s former anchorprincess has gone well beyond obsessive in the search for answers about her colossal breakdown. Here’s what he’s got today:

(more…)

Apparently tired of all of his recent good behavior, rapper Beanie Sigel has been ordered to spend one day in prison for violating his parole after an unauthorized trip to A.C. with a convicted felon. Sigel probably would’ve been free and clear had, according to Inquirer’s story, authorities not “learned of Sigel’s trip to the casino last month when they read about it in the Philadelphia Daily News,” thanks to a gossip item written by that dish-digging scoundrel, The Mighty Dan Gross.

In addition to the one day clink-stint, the judge added six months probation in a halfway house onto his sentence. Hopefully, Sigel won’t put the young gossip-monger on a retaliation hit-list. In a phone conversation with the Daily Examiner, Gross didn’t seem too worried he would end up on the rapper’s bad side, but we suggest he steer clear of the red carpet at The Source awards any time soon.

Beanie’s Bagged for Parole Violation [Inquirer]