The Department of Justice is preparing to release findings this week alleging that the Ferguson, Mo., Police Department practiced routine racial bias and violated the constitutional rights of residents, the Washington Post reports. According to the report, department officials discovered that although 67 percent of Ferguson’s population is black, black people made up 93 percent…

A 19-year-old Haitian was reportedly beaten and hanged in a public square in Santiago, Dominican Republic, the Haiti Sentinel reports. The victim, identified only as “Tulile,” was hanged in the square of Ercilia Pepin, his hands and feet tied up, near the María José Cabral and Baez hospital, where he reportedly worked shining shoes. According…

Three Muslim students were shot to death at a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill residential complex, and a suspect, with reportedly anti-religious views, has been taken into custody, Al-Jazeera reports.  Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, was arrested and charged in the triple homicide of 23-year-old Deah Shaddy Barakat; his wife, 21-year-old Yusor Mohammad; and…

Rookie New York City cop Peter Liang will face criminal charges for his part in the November shooting death of 28-year-old Akai Gurley, NY1 reports. Last year Gurley was shot in the stairwell of a Brooklyn, N.Y., apartment building. At that time, the New York City Police Department called the shooting an “accident.” Liang had only…

A Georgia man who killed his ex-wife and three others reportedly had been arguing with the ex about taxes and child support, an investigator said, before going on a deadly shooting spree that ended with him killing himself, the Associated Press reports. On Saturday, a little after 3 p.m., Cedric Prather Jr., 33, parked a…

Students at South Pointe High School in South Carolina wasted no time in turning around the ugly message that had been spray-painted across a spirit rock outside the school over the weekend, turning it into a message of equality, the Herald Online reports.  The first, racist message, which read “Happy N—ger Month” and was signed…

A South Carolina high school was the target of racist graffiti Sunday when a large rock, which sits in front of the school, was spray-painted with the slur “Happy N—ger Month,” Raw Story reports. The rock, in front of South Pointe High School in Rock Hill, was signed “KKK,” the news site notes. “It was…

Once again, people in the fashion industry are taking the not-so-fashionable (read: really racist) route, with A.P.C. founder Jean Touitou deciding that it would be OK to use the n-word throughout the presentation for his Fall 2015 men’s collection, Style.com reports.    According to the news site, on Sunday the French designer used the slur…

Updated Thursday, Jan. 22, 6:15 p.m. EST: In a statement, McDonald’s USA told The Root that it had not seen the lawsuit but would be reviewing the matter “carefully.”  “We have not seen the lawsuit, and cannot comment on its allegations, but will review the matter carefully,” the statement read. “McDonald’s has a long-standing history of embracing the…