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7 Young Black Writers You Should Know
Ebony‘s Patrice Peck pulled together this list of up-and-coming black wordsmiths — from journalists to poets to fiction writers — who are making their unique marks on the literary world. Here’s just a little about who they are, why they write and why we should be reading them: Jenna Wortham As a technology reporter for The…
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Racist, Sexist Slurs to Be Removed From World Trade Center
Black people, white people, Jewish people and women: That’s not even the full list of groups targeted by racist and sexist graffiti discovered in the bathrooms at New York City’s One World Trade Center construction site. On Tuesday the Daily News reported that workers have been assigned to paint over the vandalism. The worst part…
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I Can't Support the Anti-Bullying Movement
Writing at Diverse Issues in Higher Education, Katherine Wheatle laments that the term “bullying” has been watered down because anyone who feels different feels free to invoke it. Proper use of the term should really focus on who has power, she argues. In September 2010, columnist Dan Savage started the It Gets Better Project as a…
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Painting Shows Slave-Auction Drama
(The Root) — This image is part of a weekly series that The Root is presenting in conjunction with the Image of the Black in Western Art Archive at Harvard University’s W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research. In May of 1861, a strikingly original painting was exhibited at the annual show…
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Why RuPaul Matters
Ebony‘s Tracey Ross argues that the program Drag Race is an important vehicle for exploring the intersection of race, sexual orientation and gender — one not seen anywhere else on television. The reality show, a cross between a beauty pageant and a lip-synching competition, pays homage to the drag ball culture born out of the Harlem Renaissance…
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NAACP and the Soda Industry: Where's the Leadership?
In a piece for the Huffington Post, Sonia Ospina calls the civil rights group’s alignment with the soda industry an example of “leadership failure” — but the NAACP isn’t alone. Ospina outlines a five-point plan for everyone involved in this story. A New York Times article this week, “In N.A.A.C.P., Industry Gets Ally Against Soda Ban,” seems…
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Freedom After 40 Years in Solitary?
Editor’s note: This is the first of two parts. After four decades of solitary confinement in the nation’s most populated maximum-security prison—and one of its most historically brutal—a member of the internationally known “Angola Three” has reasonable cause to expect that he will soon be released, his attorneys and supporters say. The request to set…
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'The Sisterhood' Is Not Just for Believers
(The Root) — Blacks in reality television have been front and center in the news, with the recent controversies surrounding Love & Hip Hop New York, The Best Damn Funeral Ever and the recently canceled show All My Babies’ Mamas. In the midst of all the hoopla is The Sisterhood, a reality show that explores…
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Hillary as President: Better for Blacks?
(The Root) — The same day that President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made headlines for their first joint interview, on 60 Minutes, NAACP President Ben Jealous delighted conservatives with his headline-making interview on another Sunday news program. Appearing on Meet the Press, Jealous said, “Right now when you look at joblessness in…
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Ancient African Archives Torched in Mali
As scholars and journalists had warned, priceless pieces of African history have been lost amid fighting in Mali. The Guardian reports: Islamist insurgents retreating from Timbuktu set fire to a library containing thousands of priceless historic manuscripts, according to the Saharan town’s mayor, in an incident he described as a “devastating blow” to world heritage.…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
