According to its website, Murray Hill's Tonic East “is the most well rounded sports bar in the area, with an attractive scene of locals.” But it seems black was not deemed beautiful by the management: they recently agreed to settle a discrimination lawsuit brought by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to the tune of $35,000. Responding to complaints from blacks who say they were denied entrance “based on violations of the unwritten dress code,” Cuomo’s office......

An animal near and dear to the Gothamist heart has been embroiled in a Super Bowl controversy! This year's wardrobe malfunction is now the debate over an animated ad from SalesGenie.com that features pandas. During the commercials, two pandas discuss how to stay in business while speaking with Chinese (English-as-a-second-language) accents. There is also one panda who speaks in non-accented English. After the growing criticism (even College Humor dubbed it "the first commercial to......

Brooklyn Surrogate Court Judge Diana Johnson is the first African-American to be elected to a Surrogate Court judgeship in New York history. With only weeks on the bench, however, someone spray painted racist graffiti inside two separate elevators at the Downtown Brooklyn courthouse. One message read "Judge Diana Johnson is Dumb," and the other read "Judge Diana Johnson is a Dumb (n-word)." Dozens of lawmakers and judges held a rally to support Johnson in the......

The personal assistant accused of killing her boss, realtor Linda Stein, claims that the police forced her to confess. Natavia Lowery's father said, "She said [to detectives] she wanted to call her parents and her attorney, and [they] told her they called them already. They lied and coerced her." Lowery has been charged with second-degree murder. The police say that the 26-year-old Brooklyn resident confessed to killing the 62-year-old former punk rock manager on October......

A few days ago The Apiary suspected that someone was out to get Rififi after reading some new comments on an old post about the multi-purpose venue, and hearing their liquor license was about to expire. One of the managers, Karin Stanley, quickly responded -- confirming the site's suspicions:Unfortunately you are correct, there is a smear campaign being perpetrated against Rififi by some of the tenants in the surrounding buildings. They are intent on ousting......

The Staten Island District Attorney's office has dropped hate crime charges against two young white men accused of beating a black man in Mariners Harbor. SI DA Daniel Donovan said, "At this point I believe the evidence provided to my office by the police is legally insufficient to support hate-crime charges." Skylar McCormick was allegedly punched, kicked, beaten and threatened with a baseball bat Tuesday night after he touched Daniel Avissato's Cadillac. Avissato and Mark......

The police arrested two white men in the the beating of a black man in Staten Island. The Reverend Al Sharpton appeared with the victim and said, "We cannot live in a city, state or nation where people cannot safely be in the streets or anywhere else because of the color of their skin." In Mariners Harbor on Tuesday night, 20-year-old Skylar McCormick and four friends - who are white - were having a foot......

The video of City Councilman James Oddo letting the f-bombs drop on a Norwegian TV comedian is getting mixed reactions - and a fair number of chuckles - from New Yorkers, but now it turns out that he wasn't meant to be a poor sap duped into answering stupid questions about whether Barack Obama is an American citizen and "Hillary Clinton's incident with a cigar." A spokesman for the Norwegian program "Rikers Rost" tells the......

John Fox was found guilty of manslaughter in the killing of Michael Sandy. Fox was convicted on charges of a hate crime and manslaughter, but not murder, for chasing Michael Sandy onto the Belt Parkway where he was fatally struck by a car. Three men are on trial for Sandy's killing: John Fox, Ilya Shurov, and Michael Fortunato. A fourth man, Michael Timmins, pleaded guilty to a lesser charge in exchange for his testimony. Fox......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a confined space rescue at The Beverly Hotel on 50th St. in Manhattan, a pedestrian struck on West 145th St. and 7th Ave. in Manhattan, and a fall victim on West 24th St. in Manhattan. Former NY State chief judge Sol Wachtler got his law license back, 14 years after pleading guilty to being a stalker. Some Jewish leaders are angry that Mayor Bloomberg met with London mayor Ken......

Bill O'Reilly continued to claim that he wasn't being racist when expressing his surprise that a dinner at Harlem soul food restaurant Sylvia's was extremely pleasant. Media watchdog group Media Matters distributed text and clips of O'Reilly's radio show where the conservative talking head explained, "I couldn't get over the fact that there was no difference between Sylvia's restaurant and any other restaurant in New York City. I mean, it was exactly the same, even......

THEATER: New York Magazine called Kanene Holder’s last solo show, SITCHAASSDOWN “21 pitch-perfect snapshots of the black experience”. His current multimedia performance art installation, Committing that Black on Black Crime Called Blackface, goes down in the front window of chashama on 37th Street. Between the hours of 5:30pm and 8pm, curious passers-by can behold Holder paying satirical homage to Buckwheat “via a self-muzzled/pantomiming character who navigates a racist cauldron of images while staring into circus......

A federal judge dismissed defamation charges against City Councilman John Liu related to an incident last year when Liu called radio personality DJ Star a "sick, racist pedophile." The characterization was a reaction to an on-air taunt at a rival DJ, when DJ Star (Troi Torain), solicited information on where DJ Envy of Hot 97 lived so he could sexually defile his four-year-old daughter. DJ Star also called DJ Envy's wife, who is Asian, several......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a bank robbery on 5th Ave. in Brooklyn, an electric shock at 25th Ave. and 49th St. in Queens, and a shooting on 101st St. and Columbus Ave. in Manhattan. Chazz Palminteri's stage and screen bildungsroman A Bronx Tale will appear again onstage this fall. The off-Broadway play was adapted to a 1993 movie featuring Palminteri, Robert De Niro, and screen newcomer Lillo Brancato. The latter is now facing......

French megachef Daniel Boulud has agreed to settle a federal lawsuit that alleges he discriminated against nonwhite employees at his restaurant Daniel, according to an article in today's Times. In addition to an undisclosed financial settlement, Boulud will institute a promotion policy that will be overseen by the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the state attorney general’s office. Busboys and runners will receive 8 percent raises. Daniel's managers will get training in racial sensitivity.......

Improv Everywhere was at it again recently. Their latest mission? Protesting Wendy's "racist logo" with over 50 redheads, numerous protest signs and some catchy chants on hand. ”Biggie Size Bigotry!, Value Menu Us! and Where’s Our Beef? In Your Logo!” are some of our faves. Head over to the site for more on the "protest" as well as a look at what it's like to ride the subway and suddenly realize you're surrounded by ginger......

As we mentioned, City Councilman Charles Barron held his press conference yesterday to announce his candidacy for the 2009 Brooklyn Borough Presidency. He told the crowds that his platform included affordable housing, health care accessibility, more jobs, standing up to developers who use eminent domain, ending mayor control of schools and more would help everyone. "Am I going to be a borough president for all the people? Absolutely. But I'm letting y'all know now, I'm......

Does Joe Torre, manager of the Yankees, treat black and white players differently? According to former Yankees outfielder Gary Sheffield, he does. In an interview that is scheduled to air Tuesday on HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumble. Sheffield makes some shocking allegations in the interview with Andrea Kremer, saying that he wasn't the only black player that had issues with Torre. A transcript made available to Newsday, details some of the statements that......

Recently, there has been a lot of "bouncer activity" at venues, bars and even directed at New York bands playing shows. We just received this disturbing report involving one gay man and a Union Pool bouncer: Saturday night one my friends, Charlie, was beaten up by a bouncer at Union Pool after a gay dance party there. From all accounts, it was unfounded and out of nowhere, and we shouldn't let this slide!!! Union pool......

Reuters has a sad story today about a young Staten Island man named Osama Al-Najjar. He now goes by "Sammy," but insists that family members still call him Osama in private. His given name was relatively innocuous until 2001, when it became shorthand for the infamous terrorist Osama bin Laden. After being taunted as "bin Laden" and "terrorist" at his high school, Al-Najjar attempted suicide twice in one day via pills and hanging. Upon entering......

Four months after the opening of three much mulled-over Robert Moses exhibitions, the debate over his legacy shows no signs of waning. Yesterday’s NY Times delved yet again into the morass, this time wondering whether the two perspectives are simply creatures of their cultural moments – a city embroiled in decay vs. a city experiencing a growth spurt. Here’s Power Broker author Robert Caro’s take: “I understand each age looks through its own prism,”......

The firing of Don Imus has caused many to take a look at language in not only media, but music. As previously mentioned, Al Sharpton is one looking to clean up what we hear, and yesterday he led a march against racist and sexist lyrics, targeting the major labels. Around 400 others joined him in a march around midtown, outside companies like Universal Music Group. The topic reportedly carried over to a private gathering at......

On Tuesday "The Oprah Winfrey Show" became a platform for the Hip-Hop community to respond to the Don Imus controversy with a panel discussion featuring Russell Simmons, Dr. Benjamin Chavis, Kevin Liles, Common and more. Should musicians lose their jobs or their contracts for using words that are considered racist and sexist? As seen in the video clip below, the former EIC of Essence Magazine thinks so. She is met with many who disagree, however,......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a bank robbery on Broadway in Queens, a water rescue from the Bronx River, and a retaining wall collapse on Waterview Ct. on Staten Island. A judge awarded equal custody of a 17-month-old infant to the child's father, the boyfriend of Jennifer Rubell. She is the daughter niece of the late club impressario Steve Rubell, and previously claimed her boyfriend was a stoner mooch, who refused to leave her......

Radio shock jock Don Imus was suspended for two weeks by CBS, which owns WFAN and Westwood One (the radio outlets his show is broadcast and syndicated on) and MSNBC, which broadcasts a televised simulcast of the radio show, over remarks he made towards the Rutgers women's basketball team. MSNBC announced that Imus would be suspended first, then CBS announced a similar suspension. The suspension will begin on Monday, as Imus has a series......

On-air personalities (especially those of the "shock jock" genre) are really raising the bar in crossing the line this month. While there's been some high-profile stupid DJ behavior in the past - Hot 97's Tsunami Song, Opie & Anthony broadcasting a couple having sex at St. Patrick's, DJ Star asking listeners for information where a radio rival's young daughter goes to school so he could ejaculate and pee on her - the last week has......

The Reverend Al Sharpton, who has been representing the family of police shooting victim Sean Bell, weighed in about the taxi driver who Bell shooting cop Michael Oliver allegedly assaulted 12 years ago. Sharpton held a press conference, where he said that revelations about Oliver show that's he's "inappropriate at best, and biased and racist at worst." Oliver allegedly told immigrant Moussa Ndiyae "I don't know what you're doing here. I'm going to send you......

With the sun out, the temperatures high, one can only think of one thing-- what's going on in the World of the -ist's? Bostonist dug deep to uncover Barack Obama's unpaid parking tickets, their Governor's latest ethical lapse, and a plagarizing sports writer. Chicagoist had everything in twos: two views on having the Olympics, losing two members of their Super Bowl team, and two music festivals. DCist put their noses in legal books as......

Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield, who were in their friend Sean Bell's car when police fired 50 times at them, testified before the grand jury yesterday. While they did not tell reporters what they said about the shooting that after Bell's bachelor party, Benefield said, "We just need justice." Guzman, who was hospitalized for two months and is still in a wheelchair due to his wounds, said, "We've been waiting for this for a......

Things were getting a little quiet over at The Village Voice, but now they've gone and started a racket again by firing their new editor, David Blum. At first watching the decline of the paper was somewhat amusing, but now it's just getting sad. At a meeting on Wednesday there were staff members that argued about the lack of racial diversity amongst the employees. This was promptly followed by two staffers mentioning Mr. Blum making......