I was 18 years old when I first felt powerless. I stood, frozen, as a gun was pointed at my head. I was demeaned and called unprintable names. The victim of abuse and sex trafficking, I was repeatedly violated and tortured and then blamed for it all. On April 15 that powerless feeling returned. That was the…

With Sunday’s unexpected release of their Bonnie and Clyde-style short film, Run, Jay Z and Beyoncé may have created enough distraction to slam shut the doors of elevator gate. Besides the Carters, the stylish, four-minute film features a blockbuster cast, including Don Cheadle, Guillermo Diaz, Emmy Rossum, Blake Lively, Rashida Jones, Kidada Jones, Sean Penn…

Saturday Night Live mercilessly lampooned the Solange and Jay Z elevator fight during the show’s season finale. In the comedy sketch, Solange was not attacking her brother-in-law, but trying to remove a spider off his shoulder. This was not the first time the show parodied the family, well, Beyoncé. Just weeks ago, they released a…

Just days after announcing that Oprah Winfrey’s OWN would chronicle Michael Sam’s every move for a documentary series, officials said Friday that the project has been placed on hold indefinitely, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Last week, Sam made headlines when he became the first openly gay player to be drafted by the NFL’s St.…

It was a horrifying discovery when Jerome Murdough was found dead in his Rikers Island jail cell after malfunctioning equipment caused temperatures to skyrocket to nearly 100 degrees in February. Now, officials say the death of the 56-year-old former Marine may be emblematic of a growing problem in jails across the nation as the inmate…

Saturday marked the 60th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision, which struck down the “separate but equal” doctrine in public schools. Long after this landmark civil rights victory was won in the courts, however, communities of color have continued the struggle to realize an equal education for their children. From…

New Hampshire political leaders have joined a widening chorus of residents calling for the resignation of a police commissioner who called President Barack Obama the n-word, the Associated Press reports. Wolfeboro, N.H., Town Manager David Owen posted a statement (pdf) Friday on the town’s website calling on Robert Copeland, 82, to resign the position to…