CJ Pearson, the 13-year-old YouTube star, has renounced conservatism, CNN reports. The teenager has used his online platform to criticize President Barack Obama’s policies and to promote conservative viewpoints. He has a huge audience of more than 100,000 Facebook followers and nearly 19,000 YouTube channel subscribers. On Friday, Pearson expressed several concerns to the network…

Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson got a firsthand look at Syrian-refugee camps in Jordan and concluded on Saturday that conditions are adequate, the Associated Press reports. He suggested that the camps should be a long-term solution for the crisis and called on neighboring Middle Eastern countries to take in the overflow of migrants. “I did…

While whipping up racial controversy, Donald Trump shocked many when he announced that a coalition of 100 black ministers would endorse his candidacy on Monday after a meeting at his New York City headquarters. But some of those on the invitation list say they have no plans to back his presidential bid, CNN reports. Bishop…

Brown University unveiled a plan Friday to spend $100 million to address campus racism and diversity issues, the Providence Journal reports. The Ivy League university’s president, Christina Paxson, is calling on students, faculty and staff to comment on the 19-page proposal, which Brown would implement over a 10-year period. Titled “Pathways to Diversity and Inclusion,”…

The millennial generation is less tolerant of offensive language directed at minorities. A Pew report released on Friday said that 40 percent of Americans ages 18 to 34 support the idea of the government limiting hate speech targeting minorities, Newsweek reports. By contrast, older generations tend to support free speech at higher rates. Only 27…

University of Kansas officials placed a white professor on paid leave after her students filed a complaint over her use of the n-word during a lecture on racism, the Lawrence Journal-World reports. Professor Andrea Quenette, 33, said that school officials notified her on Friday about the formal complaint. Her supervisors agreed to her request for…

Protesters encamped at a Minneapolis police station demanded the prosecution of the two officers involved in the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man, the Associated Press reports. Mel Reeves, a longtime Minneapolis civil rights activist, told AP on Saturday night that witness statements are enough to get the process started. He said the officers…

A federal court in Iowa accused an alleged white supremacist on Wednesday of a hate crime for viciously beating a semiconscious black man in a racially motivated attack, the Associated Press reports. Randy Joe Metcalf, 40, was out on bond, awaiting trial on state assault charges for the attack, when federal authorities arrested him Tuesday.…

According to a new study, only half of young black people expect to live past age 35, the Huffington Post reports. On Monday the American Sociological Association and the Journal of Health and Social Behavior released the study (pdf), which asked more than 17,000 young people to predict their longevity. According to the Huffington Post, two out of three…

A top NBC executive apologized to members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus after using the “i-word” in reference to undocumented immigrants during a meeting with the lawmakers, Politico reports. While discussing NBC’s integration with Telemundo, its Spanish-language network, NBC News President Deborah Turness gave an example about how it had covered Pope Francis’ U.S. visit.…