The cradle-to-prison pipeline and the sharp decline in employment opportunities during the Great Recession remain very real for black men. University of Chicago economic researchers Derek Neal and Armin Rick looked at census data to measure the status of black men and presented preliminary findings from their working paper at the National Bureau of Economic…

Your local barbershop probably consists of televisions broadcasting ESPN, animated banter on almost any subject and music to match the vibe of the shop. The only literature you would expect to find is a magazine. A Palm Beach County, Fla., barbershop is altering this traditional view of barbershops by taking away the TVs and radios…

A foul stench coming from a Fort Worth, Texas, funeral home drew the attention of the building’s landlord during a property check Tuesday morning. Little did the landlord know that the smell was wafting from several unidentified bodies—some already embalmed and in caskets—inside, the Dallas News reports.   Police who responded to the landlord’s call…

In his recent case for reparations, The Atlantic’s Ta-Nehisi Coates offers this startling fact: “Black families making $100,000 typically live in the kinds of neighborhoods inhabited by white families making $30,000.” It underpins one of his main arguments: that black folks uniquely were victims of intentional, government-sponsored racial segregation that endures and must be compensated…

We’ve heard this argument before: Black men’s anti-police mentality can be attributed to an absence of black fathers in the home. Sean Bergin, a white TV reporter with News 12 New Jersey, found himself in hot water for espousing that view during a report that was broadcast on Sunday, the Associated Press reports. Bergin’s report…

Veteran journalist Pam Oliver has been a staple on the sidelines of the NFL for a very long time—20 years, in fact. But her role there, at least in the top position, has abruptly come to end. On Monday it was announced that Oliver, 53, had been essentially demoted, from the No. 1 team to…

Shock value in rap has escalated from N.W.A chanting “F—k the police” in the hook of a song to an artist mutilating himself and then jumping off a building. Forty-year-old Andre Johnson did the latter in April in Los Angeles. Before jumping from the second floor of a North Hollywood building after law enforcement ordered him…

Actor Lance Gross is playing a new role as a global ambassador for the Howard University Freshman Leadership Academy.  The voyage started this past Sunday, when the Howard alumnus and about 60 students and faculty members boarded their flight to Beijing. On this three-week immersion trip, students will examine practices in education, business and leadership…

Is letting your child play in the park a crime? The North Augusta, S.C., police department thinks so. According to ABC 6, Debra Harrell has been charged with unlawful conduct toward a child for allowing her 9-year-old daughter to play in a park while Harrell worked at a nearby McDonald’s. The 9-year old was approached…