Gabby Douglas on hair hate: "It doesn't matter": We couldn't agree more with Olympic medalist Gabby Douglas' first response to the fact that her hairstyle — nothing crazy, just a simple ponytail or bun — was under scrutiny. "I don't know where this is coming from," she said in a statement to the Associated Press. (Answer: Some random people on Twitter and no one of significance.) She continued, "What's wrong with my hair?" (Good question.) "I'm like, 'I just made history and people are focused on my hair?' It can be bald or short; it doesn't matter about my hair." Her advice to anyone who thinks it's worth debating? "Nothing is going to change. I'm going to wear my hair like this during beam and bar finals. You might as well just stop talking about it," she said. The Olympic champion has spoken. Unless Madam C.J. Walker herself rises from the grave to weigh in, can we close the book once and for all on this silly (not to mention blown totally out of proportion) Olympic side story?
Virginia school charged with racial discrimination: Black and Latino kids account for nearly one-third of the local population but only 3 percent of the overall student body of one prestigious Fairfax, Va., high school. That caught the NAACP's attention, and now the organization is charging in a federal discrimination complaint that the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology board "long ago adopted an approach that systematically denies those students admissions to … one of the 'crown jewel high schools' in all the nation," BlackAmericaWeb reports.
Michael Clayton: NFL's unlikeliest MVP? At Ebony.com, Clayton tells the story of how his tumultuous tenure in Tampa Bay molded him into an invaluable asset to the Super Bowl champion New York Giants.
What exactly did LoLo Jones do wrong? In response to a New York Times writer's indictment of the runner for what he said was "play[ing] into the persistent, demeaning notion that women are worthy as athletes only if they have sex appeal," Slate's Alyssa Rosenberg reponds, "If Longman is disgusted by the sight of Jones or any other athlete on the hustle, he might consider the structural changes that would make access to the resources to support Olympic training more universally available."