Is Jennifer Lopez still at home on the block?
Jenny’s come a long way from her block in the Bronx - maybe too long?
Singer and actor Jennifer Lopez, who once told fans not to be “fooled by the rocks that I got,” found herself in the middle of a controversy recently: Can she still be Jenny from the block if she can't even come home to film an advertisement?
After she sealed an endorsement deal with Italian carmaker Fiat, one of her commercials featured her in the Bronx, where she grew up. The commercial shows Lopez driving through streets lined with bodegas, beauty shops, bucket drummers and dancing children. The song, “Until It Beats No More,” from her new album “Love?” plays in the background.
“This place inspires me to be tougher, to stay sharper, to think faster,” Lopez says in a voiceover. “They may be just streets to you, but to me, they’re a playground.”
But the woman in the car wasn't Lopez.
Can a former skinhead erase the hate?
"I changed my heart years ago," Bryon Widner said.
Widner was former skinhead and neo-nazi, covered in racist tattoos and filled with hate. He had a change of heart, though, and sought to remove the tattoos - a way to show on the outside how he'd changed inside.
He is now starting a new life with his wife and children, although his family is still sometimes harassed, and many wonder whether he could really change.
"The only way to defeat hate is through love," Widner said.
Engage: Eddie Long's wife files for divorce
Engage with news and opinions from around the web about under-reported stories from undercovered communities.
Eddie Long's wife, Vanessa Long, files for divorce more than a year after sexual allegations against the preacher - 11alive.com
Pew Study: "Nearly two-thirds of the 10.2 million unauthorized adult immigrants in the United States have lived in this country for at least 10 years and nearly half are parents of minor children" - National Public Radio
Obama campaign aims for Arizona voters - The New York Times
ACLU: New details about FBI's alleged illegal use of outreach to Muslims, other groups - The Washington Post
Adopted kids taken from gay father
Chandler Burr, an American father, is fighting the Colombian government for custody his adoptive sons after authorities discovered he is gay.
Burr met the boys in 2009, and he said they know he's gay. But a Colombian judge said Burr wasn't upfront about his sexual orientation while the adoption was taking place. "Just as Burr had the right to know about the children," the judge said in a statement, "the children had the right to know who the person adopting them really is."
About In America
What defines you? Maybe it’s the shade of your skin, the place you grew up, the accent in your words, the make up of your family, the gender you were born with, the intimate relationships you chose to have or your generation? As the American identity changes we will be there to report it. In America is a venue for creative and timely sharing of news that explores who we are. Reach us at inamerica@cnn.com.
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