“My Ghanaian boyfriend is upset because I left his family’s party without him knowing. The feud between his mother and me came to a head at the event. She told me I wasn’t good enough for her son because I’m African American, I don’t have an Ivy League degree, I have kinky hair, I don’t…

Editor’s note: Read part 1 here. Talking about the intersection of gun violence and schools instantly draws our hearts and minds to the tragic shootings at Columbine, Sandy Hook and Sparks Middle School. However, in communities like Chicago and Detroit, where shootings take the lives of hundreds of people each year, the relationship between violence…

Whether it’s W.E.B. Du Bois unpacking the question, “How does it feel to be a problem?”—as the unspoken query that society has historically put to black America—or the Notorious B.I.G. unapologetically claiming Casanova status, despite being a “heartthrob never, black and ugly as ever,” the issue of black self-image never leaves us. And it’s come…

Nearly 50 years ago—when segregation ruled college football in the South—a transformational game took place, pitting a team led by African-American players against one from a powerhouse that was almost entirely white. The black team won, and the cult of white supremacy on the gridiron was shattered. And given football’s powerful cultural influence, the game…

As the saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Apparently so is the road to terrible music videos. English singer-songwriter Lily Allen seems to have decided to make a statement on the Miley Cyrus-ification of pop culture by making her latest video an in-your-face attack on the sexual exploitation of women…

Since Kim Kardashian replaced her as America’s sex-tape superstar-turned-reality-show celebrity du jour, Paris Hilton has spent much of the last few years battling to remain relevant and to stop her descent into becoming a Hollywood punch line. But she recently earned ridicule for a surprising reason: her positive review of the film 12 Years a…

Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in the Guardian newspaper. It appears with the writer’s permission. Every time I sit on a crowded street car, bus or subway train in Toronto, I know I will have an empty seat next to me. It’s like a broken record. Sometimes I don’t mind having the extra space, but…