Joe Rickey Hundley, the 60-year-old man accused of slapping a toddler on a Feb. 8 Minneapolis-to-Atlanta flight and hurling a racial slur, has pleaded not guilty to assault in federal court, the Associated Press reports. The Hayden, Idaho, resident appeared in court on Wednesday. His lawyer, Marcia Shein, says that her client admitted to using…

Writing at Clutch magazine, The Root’s contributing editor Demetria L. Lucas has what she admits are some “un-PC” comments about the Ohio trial that made headlines and set off a national dialogue about rape. … Forgive me if I’m habitually line-stepping, or even crossing here, by writing what I’m really thinking, but there are a…

(The Root) — It’s 9:30 p.m. on Friday, March 15, in the East Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, N.Y., and a gaggle of people have gathered at East 55th Street and Church Avenue to remember Kimani “Kiki” Gray and protest his death. NYPD cars and paddy wagons line Church Avenue and color the heavily West Indian…

(The Root) — “Got drunk with co-workers after work one night. One guy, whom I trust and have built a friendship with, took me home. I woke up naked in his bed, vaguely remembering kisses. I’ve always turned him down in the past. What do I do?” —R.G. Unfortunately, you don’t know what happened, and…

(The Root) — It’s a very eclectic category that includes both Coming to America and Carmen Jones, but that’s what you’ll find in round 1 of The Root’s March Movie Madness comedy/musical section. Those two films aren’t going head-to-head in this round, but check out the matchups below (Uptown Saturday Night versus Friday? Purple Rain…

(The Root) — Spike Lee movies show up twice (Do the Right Thing and Malcolm X) in our March Movie Madness Black Dramas category. Then there’s Denzel’s first major film (A Soldier’s Story), brilliant biopics of our most treasured music greats (What’s Love Got to Do With It, Ray and Lady Sings the Blues), dueling…

What’s behind the absence of national mourning when young victims of violence are African American? Ebony‘s Zerlina Maxwell seeks out the perspectives of two experts. The public outcry for gun legislation after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School was swift and forceful.  Suddenly, there was a narrative shift in the media that something…

Writing at the Huffington Post, Glennisha Morgan, a self-described “queer woman of color,” says she doesn’t think the filmmaker is homophobic, but that doesn’t excuse his lackluster representation of LGBT people.  In the middle of the week, a writer and black gay rights activist known as Anti-Intellect tweeted his opinion about Spike Lee’s 1988 film School Daze, which…

(The Root) — From the recent (Think Like a Man) to the classic (Claudine), from the comedic (Boomerang) to the dramatic (Love Jones), these movies have stood out as some of the most celebrated romantic films of all time. Unfortunately, only half of them can advance to the next round. Which ones deserve a chance…