A few weeks ago, one of America’s leading voices on black respectability, Lawrence Otis Graham, wrote in the Washington Post about the realization that respectability had failed to protect his son from the barbs of racial bias. In spite of his efforts as a father to make his son appear to be as accomplished and educated…

Chris Brown has made yet another mess after breaking up (again) with his on-off girlfriend Karrueche Tran. The pair recently split, and Brown took to social media late Saturday night to vent his frustrations about his ex. “We’ve got scars, some of them u gave me, some of them I’ve caused,” he wrote on his official…

The star of America’s once-beloved television father figure, Bill Cosby, continues to fade literally and figuratively amid increasing allegations of assault charges, including a lawsuit. Cosby’s five-pointed terrazzo-and-brass star, located on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles, was scrawled with “rapist” three times, according to the New York Daily News. “The Hollywood Walk of Fame is…

No charges were ever filed against white Ferguson, Mo., police Officer Darren Wilson, who shot and killed 18-year-old unarmed Michael Brown last summer, but authorities are pursuing assault charges against an unarmed black man who allegedly pushed a city marshal during a demonstration against police brutality, Time magazine reports. Rasheen Aldridge, 20, the youngest member…

President Barack Obama thought he was just going to the doctor on Saturday to get checked for a sore throat. Turns out he suffers from acid reflux, the president’s physician said, according to Reuters. “The president’s symptoms are consistent with soft tissue inflammation related to acid reflux and will be treated accordingly,” Obama’s doctor, Capt.…

A nationwide peaceful protest movement designed to shine the spotlight on police violence in the black community turned violent in Berkeley, Calif., late Saturday as demonstrators smashed windows and threw rocks and bricks at officers, the Associated Press reports. Several officers were struck, but there were just two reports of injury, Berkeley police spokeswoman Jenn…

There could not be more explicit examples of our nation’s lack of progress on social-justice issues than the current state of affairs in Ferguson, Mo., and New York City. The reaction to two grand juries’ decisions not to indict the police officers in the deaths of two unarmed men has been fueled by the same…

A drama about the summer afternoon in 1989 when Barack Obama and his future first lady, Michelle Robinson, had their first date is scheduled to begin filming this summer in Chicago, the couple’s hometown, Deadline Hollywood reports. The film, Southside With You, will feature Tika Sumpter (Get on Up) as Michelle Obama, who was born…

The U.S. Supreme Court is slated to review whether Texas’ rejection of a proposed license plate featuring the Confederate flag—a racially divisive emblem from the Civil War era—violated the free-speech rights of the group that wanted the special plates, the Washington Post reports. Courts are divided over whether government may choose among the political messages…

From New York City to Miami Beach, Fla., to Oakland, Calif., protesters across the nation staged die-ins, blocked roadways and marched into stores to protest grand jury decisions in New York City and Ferguson, Mo., not to indict white police officers in the deaths of unarmed black men. In New York City, hundreds of protesters…