As fans watched in front of their flatscreens to see whether singer-songwriter Frank Ocean won a coveted Grammy Award on Sunday night — he did — the artist himself was probably thinking about how to get the particulars of his next work just right, writes Jeff Himmelman in the New York Times magazine. In the…

As many fans closely follow the Nigerian football team, Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani writes in the New York Times of the country’s caste system, in which you’re either on top or dismissed without a second look. BIGOTS and racists exist in America, without a doubt, but America today is a more civilized place than Nigeria. Not because of…

As the American economy struggles to regain its footing, President Obama declared that his upcoming State of the Union address will tackle jobs, reports USA Today. “I’m going to be talking about making sure that we’re focused on job creation here in the United States of America,” Obama told House Democrats last week. Obama and…

The manhunt for Christopher Dorner continues for a fourth day in California, reports the LA Times. A $1 million reward for information leading to his capture is expected to be announced by Southern California police during a press conference at 1 p.m. PST. A massive manhunt for Dorner began last week after the 33-year-old former…

On Saturday night, four people were wounded when several men opened fire on New Orleans’ crowded Bourbon Street, reports the Associated Press. Four shots rang out rapidly Saturday night, followed by screams as some in the crowd staggered into one another and a nearby wall, video taken by a bystander and released by police showed.…

On Saturday, Chris Brown totaled his Porsche by driving into a wall in Los Angeles, according to the Associated Press. The embattled singer is nominated for best urban contemporary album at Sunday’s Grammy Awards. Brown told police that he lost control of his black Porsche during the chase. The singer’s rep told CNN that his client was…

On the Feminist Wire, male feminist Brandon Maxwell writes that Scandal is actually nothing special. It presents stereotypes with which Americans are comfortable, like patriarchal characters and a strong black woman who repeatedly saves the day, like the “magical negro” archetype. On the surface, the show seems progressive. It is rare to see such a…

Gawker contributor Brentin Mock shares a personal story about the human cost of fracking in states like Texas. Obama gave considerable attention to developing natural gas, which he called a “bridge fuel.” This bridge was not entirely dirty, but it wasn’t all that clean either. The discovery of rock shale gas deposits under our feet,…

Most black people remember the first time they heard the word “nigger,” and it’s rarely a fond memory. For Shawn Taylor, he writes in Ebony that he was with his daughter when someone used the word toward him and burst the bubble he’d created to keep hate speech away from his child. There’s no reason…