Because music executives have little faith in the profitability of female solo artists, women, who were once a dominant force in hip-hop, have become almost completely invisible in the industry today, Feminista Jones writes at Salon. But who are the notable women in mainstream hip-hop today? There is Nicki Minaj who, while often charismatic and…

Leonard Pitts Jr., at the Miami Herald, asks pointed questions about race in America as the nation celebrates the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington. “What have you chosen not to see?” he asks. “What will you do to make it right?” This is “tomorrow.” Meaning that unknowable future whose unknowable difficulties Martin Luther…

In a piece at Salon, Alex Seitz-Wald explains why the white conservative media are wrong about Chris Lane being “Trayvon Martin in reverse.” First, the police weren’t forced to arrest anyone after Lane’s grisly shooting death. It’s incredible that in 2013 we’re really arguing about this, but from Henry Louis Gates [Jr.] to Travyon Martin…

(The Root) — It is difficult to imagine yourself living in a different chapter of history, but I tried this morning while walking among the waves of people on the National Mall. I hummed to myself the spirituals and protest songs I remembered hearing people sing in grainy black-and-white footage from the ’50s and ’60s:…

When family members attended Sharolyn Jackson’s funeral and burial August 3, some noted that her nose looked thinner, the Associated Press reports. They, however, figured something happened during the embalming process. But they were wrong. The truth is far stranger: The woman they buried that day was not, in fact, their loved one but a…

Attorneys on Friday agreed to drop a discrimination and sexual harassment lawsuit against Paula Deen, who lost contracts with the Food Network and other partners after she said under oath that she had used racial slurs in the past, the Associated Press reports. A document filed in U.S. District Court in Savannah said both sides…