When Justin Hudson gave his graduation speech at Hunter College High School, he made it one that people will remember for decades. In the speech, Hudson went beyond providing vague advice or encouragement for his classmates. Hudson instead chose to use his opportunity to push his high school school to end a flawed admissions policy that keeps Hunter College High School from developing adequate racial diversity.

"I feel guilt because I don't deserve any of this and neither do any of you," Hudson said in his speech, as reported by Diverseeducation.com. "We received an outstanding education at no charge based solely on our performance on a test we took when we were 11-year-olds or 4-year-olds."

Hunter College High School is a magnet school in New York City for intellectually gifted students. To be admitted to the school, students have to perform well on an exam written by the teachers at the school. Elementary school students who score in the top 10 percent on the state math and English tests are asked to take the exam.

Until recently, individual schools in New York were responsible for making sure their kids knew about the test. Essentially, teachers had to know about the test, know about which students to recommend and connect them to the test through a very personally process. As a result, black and Latino children have often been left out of the pool of those selected to receive the opportunity to apply to Hunter College High School and receive an amazing education for free.

France has dismissed a call for reparations to the country of Haiti for the $17 billion many believe France has extorted from Haiti over the past 200 years. The reparations would be paid to reimburse the country for a fee that King Charles X charged the nation after Haiti revolted and ended its colonial relationship with France. At the time of the successful revolt, Haiti became the first independent republic controlled by former black slaves. But the French did not give up easily, blockading the nation and threatening it with invasion and political isolation -- because the new country was deemed as somehow taking something from their former, brutal masters other than their rightful human freedom, in the form of France's "lost" property and slaves.

As a result, Haiti agreed to pay the country 150 million gold francs, which were borrowed from a French bank. The amount "owed" was later reduced to 90 million gold francs, which is the equivalent of $17 billion today. The country of Haiti actually made payments on this gangster debt, euphemistically referred to as "independence debt," until it was paid off in 1947.

One of the last things that a black woman can be convinced to reduce is the quality and quantity of her hair care. Yet, our very tough economic times have led many black women to significantly reduce the amounts they spend to keep their hair looking great. An amusing video by The Grio explores some of the reductions in spending on their hair care a few African American women have made given the state of the economy.

Most of us think that pretty women get all the benefits of in life, whether in the personal or professional realms. It turns out that this isn't always the case. A recent study conducted at The University of Colorado Denver Business School showed that attractive women face discrimination when applying for jobs where looks are not important, like positions in security, prison guarding and tow truck driving.

"In these professions being attractive was highly detrimental to women," said Stefanie Johnson, one of the researchers on the study. "In every other kind of job, attractive women were preferred. This wasn't the case with men which shows that there is still a double standard when it comes to gender." The study is set to be published in the prestigious Journal of Social Psychology.

In the study, participants were given a list of jobs and pictures of applicants. They were then asked to sort the applicants based upon their suitability for each job. There were 55 men and 55 women whose images were used in the analysis. Although attractive women were typically pushed out of certain jobs, the same was not true for men. Attractive men were "given opportunities" by study participants in a variety of professions and were not judged based on their looks.

Michelle Obama and her daughter Sasha took a trip recently to Spain. Apparently, that now makes them elitist, according to some conservative bloggers and commentators. For some reason, people have a problem with seeing the Obamas living the lifestyle of presidential figures. The Bush family took a multitude of vacations during W.'s time as president, and conservatives didn't seem to have much to say. In fact, Bush set a record for the number of vacation days taken by a sitting president.

Some conservatives have tried to link the Obamas' vacation spending to the national debt and taxpayer dollars. When it comes to Michelle Obama and her travel habits, an extra $100,000 in security costs are meaningless when compared with a $10 trillion deficit -- or the $700 billion in tax breaks Republicans want to give to the rich. In addition, it has been established that the Obamas paid for all their personal expenses, and that the lavish hotel was recommended by the Secret Service because it could be more easily protected. To top it all off, Michelle went on this trip to comfort a friend who was mourning the death of her father. She was attacked for spending her own money to help a friend.

Gabi Gregg has been selected as the first Twitter Jockey for MTV. Gregg won the position after a nationwide vote that had the 23-year-old up against thousands of other competitors. The job is a natural extension of the VJ jobs that MTV offers, and Gregg will report on pop culture news. She is also assigned to work with the company's Facebook account, various blogs and main Website.

Many African Americans are cheering Gregg on because she's black. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 2008 with a major in international relations and African American studies. She also founded a blog called Young, Fat and Fabulous, likely a conceptual spin-off of the blog TheYBF.

The country of South Africa had a serious image problem going into this year's World Cup. For years, the country had been banned from international competitions, largely due to economic sanctions because of apartheid. The 2010 World Cup presented a chance for the nation to either redeem itself or continue to look even worse than it has in the past.

Things were not looking so good for South Africa going into the games. There were complaints about potential labor unrest, and the country has always been known for being incredibly violent. In addition, the government was being criticized for not having the organizational skills to pull the event off successfully.

All doubts were erased when the World Cup turned out to be a tremendous success. Violence wasn't a problem, and the country's image in the world was restored. Riding off that momentum, the country now has big plans to make itself a major player on the world's economic and political stage -- and it just might be successful.

BP is getting criticism from civil rights leaders about African Americans being left out of the highly profitable oil clean up process. According to a recent investigation by the NAACP, minority contractors are not being given an opportunity to make money by cleaning up the spill that has destroyed the livelihoods of so many black people in the gulf region.

According to information presented in the Federal Procurement Data System, only $2.2 million of the $53 million awarded in contracts to clean up the oil spill have been given to businesses being run by people of color. That is only 4.8 percent of the total. In a recent letter, NAACP President Ben Jealous told BP CEO Tony Hayward that, "contractors of color are not receiving equal consideration for opportunities to participate in mitigation efforts."

The NAACP's analysis of events occurring in the Gulf region looks at the issue from a multitude of viewpoints. The organization considers the economic impact on those who live in the region. It also looks at the health effects, both physical and mental, on Gulf communities. Finally, NAACP leaders took a look at the social impact of industries and property that are important parts of the local community being suddenly destroyed or significantly altered. Economically, the losses are in the billions and are not yet accurately estimated.

Some are fuming over a new tax that was quietly introduced into recent health care legislation. The tax is a 10 percent levy imposed solely on those who use ultraviolet indoor tanning beds. The tax is expected to raise $2.7 billion for the economy. It is also designed to discourage the use of tanning beds, which are known to significantly increase the risk of skin cancer in those who use them the most.

The most interesting thing about this new tax is that there are some who argue that the tax is "reverse racism" against white Americans. They appear to be making this argument because most of those who use tanning salons are white, so this tax is more likely to affect whites than blacks.

Rush Limbaugh even jumped in, along with Doc Thompson, who fills in for Glenn Beck. Other conservative commentators across the nation seem to have made the tan tax a rallying cry in what they've now interpreted to be their own battle against oppression and discrimination. Thompson, in response to the tax even said, "I now know the pain of racism."

The rapper Chamillionaire recently alerted many of his fans to the concept of a strategic default -- a rather high-end personal finance concept. The rapper was asked about one of his homes that went into foreclosure in a recent interview, and explained why he let the house go deliberately, rather than working to keep up with the mortgage payments. The rapper told TMZ:

"I have multiple mortgages. This house actually was my most expensive mortgage. ... When the market went down, the house went down too and it was just worth nothing. ... I just decided to let it go, give it back to the bank. It wasn't a situation where they came and took it from me . I felt like I didn't want to pay that much money a month for a house I'm never at. ... I just didn't feel like it was a good investment. ..."

A strategic default is when you choose to let go of your home, rather than keeping it. It's not always the case that the bank comes and takes your house without your permission in a forced foreclosure. In this case, you are simply passing the house on because it's too much trouble to pay the bill.