Black Barbies are being sold at certain Walmart stores for much less than white versions of the same doll. The New York Daily News Reports:

Photos on Guanabee.com (first shown on a site called Funny Junk) show the Ballerina Theresa Barbie doll, who is black, and the Ballerina Barbie doll, who is white, hanging side by side in a store. Price of the black Barbie: $3.00. Price of the white Barbie: $5.93.

The photo was reportedly taken at a Walmart in Louisiana, according to Guanabee.com.

Walmart told ABC News that the chain needed to clear space for new seasonal products and thus marked down the prices of many items.

While that is an interesting argument, Walmart is a company that is hardly well-known for a simplistic reasoning behind its operations. Usually Walmart deals with everything -- from people to produce -- with the hardest, coldest business eye imaginable. It has deep reasons for all of its actions. But it's not politically correct to say on the record that a black doll is just worth less. That would be too similar to stating that black females are worthless. Walmart may have decided to cut the prices of black Barbie dolls "to clear shelf space," but at what cost to black girls' self-esteem? This video shows how preferences over a doll's color says a lot about the low self-esteem of black children.

Find more videos like this on National African American Congress Forum

Walmart is promoting the belief, which is created by society at large, that black is "less than" white. Is that horrible effect worth "clearing the shelves"? Not to corporate executives who possess souls. If this story picks up steam, it could even further tarnish Walmart's public reputation for insensitivity -- which would be bad for business at the very least. But at least the concern over the bottom line might inspire this global behemoth to be aware of it's emotional impact on communities through its practices.

The CEO of Tennessee's Hospitality Association, Walt Baker, has joined the club of high-ranking public figures to hurl racial slurs at members of the first family. Hip Hop Wired has the full story:

It was reported by the Tennessean of Nashville that CEO Walt Baker's e-mail compared Obama to the sidekick of character Tarzan, Cheeta. The message features a picture of the first lady caught off guard with her lips pursed, accompanied by a chimp that has a similar expression on its face.

Since news broke, Baker has apologized for his actions.

How many of these figures would be up here apologizing if they weren't caught? There's no point in saying sorry for something that had its full intentions when the idea first came to mind.

On Saturday, he stated, through e-mail to Nashville Metro Council, that the message was not meant to be looked at as being something malicious, but was only trying to provide some type of "political humor."

Grace Groner lived as a secret millionaire in a modest, sparsely-furnished one-bedroom house. When she died at the age of 100, she shocked the world by leaving her alma mater, Lake Forest College, $7 million. It's not every day that someone donates her fortune to a worthy cause, after living a life of great financial restraint. The Chicago Tribune reports:

Like many people who lived through the Great Depression, Grace Groner was exceptionally restrained with her money.

She got her clothes from rummage sales. She walked everywhere rather than buy a car. And her one-bedroom house in Lake Forest held little more than a few plain pieces of furniture, some mismatched dishes and a hulking TV set that appeared left over from the Johnson administration.

Her one splurge was a small scholarship program she had created for Lake Forest College, her alma mater. She planned to contribute more upon her death, and when she passed away in January, at the age of 100, her attorney informed the college president what that gift added up to.

"Oh, my God," the president said.

Groner's estate, which stemmed from a $180 stock purchase she made in 1935, was worth $7 million.

The money is going into a foundation that will enable many of Lake Forest's 1,300 students to pursue internships and study-abroad programs they otherwise might have had to forgo. It will be an appropriate memorial to a woman whose life was a testament to the higher possibilities of wealth.

If have have pockets as deep as 50 Cent, file this under things not to try at home. Rapper and business mogul Curtis Jackson is being sued for editing himself into a private sex tape as part of a humorous take on his successful 'Pimpin' Curly' Webisode series. Gothamist reports:

A Florida woman, Lastonia Leviston, has sued rapper 50 Cent in Manhattan for editing himself-wearing a curly wig-into her personal sex tape...

The rapper, real name Curtis Jackson, got his hands on Leviston's sex tape which she filmed in 2008 with Maurice Murray-she says since then he has unlawfully distributed it over the Internet. 50 Cent shows up in the video providing a voice-over narration and full-on commentary in his Pimpin' Curly persona (including a shocked moment when he discovers condoms are not being used). MTV reports that he released it on ThisIs50 as "part of a long-running beef [with Rick Ross], which featured a number of dis-heavy mixtape songs, [and] mocking videos." Leviston is allegedly one of Ross's baby mamas, and has his initials tattooed on her chest.

Kwame Kilpatrick may have started a new life as a software salesman after being booted out as mayor of Detroit in 2008, but he still can't keep his name out of the papers for dubious acts. After serving 99 days in jail, he has moved on to the part of his sentence that includes a court-ordered restitution payment of $1 million -- and he has already missed an installment. This could land the mayor, convicted of lying over an affair, right back in jail.

Many of his supporters are praising Kilpatrick's ability to rebound from scandal. The ousted politician now lives in a 5,800-sqaure-foot rented mansion with his family near Dallas and earns a $120,000 salary. Not bad for a man who was drummed out of his hometown. But, he and his wife have been observed living what many would consider a lavish lifestyle for a man who is $1 million in debt. This would be a sign of positive recuperation from Kilpatrick's trials, were it not for the fact that his missed payment of $79,011 could be Kwame's second undoing.

Yahoo News reports:

The question now is whether Kilpatrick's rebound could soon be ending. The state Court of Appeals agreed to postpone a court hearing scheduled for Friday, but he still could face arraignment on the charge of violating his probation by missing a $79,011 restitution payment due last week. If the arrest warrant issued Thursday - and then suspended - is eventually served, he could wind up back in a cell overlooking the city he once led.

The Senate has passed a jobs bill that will be critical to getting millions of Americans back to work in the coming months. The Huffington Post reports:

Companies that hire the unemployed would claim new tax breaks under a jobs-promoting bill the Senate passed Wednesday, delivering President Barack Obama and Democrats a much-needed victory.

The 70-28 vote sends the bill back to the House, which passed a far more costly measure in December. Many in the House consider the Senate bill too puny, but they may simply adopt it and send it to Obama in order to get a win. Democratic leaders promise more so-called jobs bills are on the way.

The bill contain two major provisions. First, it would exempt businesses hiring the unemployed from the 6.2 percent Social Security payroll tax through December and give them an additional $1,000 credit if new workers stay on the job a full year.

Second, it would extend highway and mass transit programs through the end of the year and pump $20 billion into them in time for the spring construction season. The money would make up for lower-than-expected gasoline tax revenues.

The Senate's $35 billion proposal is a far smaller measure than the $862 billion economic stimulus bill enacted a year ago.

Read the rest of the story on the Senate passing the jobs bill on HuggingtonPost.com.

♦Beyonce's Copyright Infringement Cost Her German Rights to "VideoPhone"
Apparently a Bulgarian bikini designer decided to sue over a bootleg version of their bikini which BeyBey rocked for the "Video Phone" video and a German judge agreed, ruling that the clip can no longer be distributed in Germany. [Read the Full Story on Bossip]


♦Black churches spread gospel of higher education
The pulpit at many black churches has become a place to pray to a higher power - and praise higher learning. [San Francisco Chronicle]

♦Economy prompts fresh look at ND's socialist bank
The Bank of North Dakota - the nation's only state-owned bank - might seem to be a relic. It was the brainchild of a failed flax farmer and one-time Socialist Party organizer during World War I. But now officials in other states are wondering if it is helping North Dakota sail through the national recession. [Yahoo News]