The story of absentee fathers is all too familiar in the black community. More than 53 percent of black children only have a mother in the home. Everyone from local preachers to the man once known as America’s favorite dad, Bill Cosby, has raised the issue. But even as the crisis continues, there are people…

(The Root) — When it comes to teaching America’s ugly history of slavery, how far is too far? What’s the appropriate age and approach? The answers to these questions are being discussed right now in Hartford, Conn., where the school system is under fire for a controversial field trip and methodology of teaching seventh-grade middle…

(The Root) — One week after it was revealed that the Alpha Gamma Delta sorority at the University of Alabama didn’t allow a biracial student into its organization because of pressure from alumnae members, members of the university at large are now speaking out in protest.  The New York Times reported from Tuscaloosa, Ala., where…

Last week, black supermodel Jessica White wondered aloud where all the black supermodels were. Black modeling icon Bethann Hardison continues to do her part during New York Fashion Week in creating awareness around the runway’s lack of diversity during the fashion and modeling industry’s biggest week, alongside fellow legends Iman and Naomi Campbell.  The call…

(The Root) — Lee Daniels’ The Butler, about a black White House butler named Cecil Gaines who serves under eight U.S. presidents before, during and after the civil rights movement, doesn’t have the trappings of a $100 million grossing film. But lo and behold, in a little more than a month after its domestic release,…

One of the more shocking things revealed in Jesse Jackson Jr.’s scandal, in which the Chicago politician was found guilty of illegally spending campaign funds on superfluous items, was his taste in clothing. Jackson had a penchant for mink capes, as if he were trying to bring back the 1970s. As Halloween fast approaches, those…

When The Arsenio Hall Show made its comeback to late-night television last week, almost 20 years had passed since it was on the air. But one look at the show’s first-week numbers, as provided by Shadow and Act via a press release, and it looks as though Hall was missed by a lot of people. “The…

In a revealing Q&A with New York magazine’s Vulture.com, Oprah Winfrey discusses how she took her television network, OWN, from life support to profitable. There were numerous factors, chief among them bringing in trusted charges Sheri Salata and Erik Logan to help right the ship, and giving her partners at Discovery Communications more of a…

Ever since he captivated audiences as Michael Lee on HBO’s The Wire, it seemed inevitable that Tristan Wilds would have a formidable acting career. But as he tells the Daily News, acting was never the plan; singing was his focus. Under the name “Mack Wilds,” a new persona he’s tailored specifically for the microphone, the…