Culture

The White House was blindsided by comedian Larry Wilmore’s decision to use the N-word at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner Saturday night, but White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters Monday that the president “appreciated the spirit of the sentiments that Mr. Wilmore expressed.” “The Comedy Central host ended his speech Saturday night…

A 121-year-old Confederate monument at the University of Louisville is coming down, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer and university President James Ramsey announced Friday. The editor of the Courier-Journal, the city’s daily newspaper, credits an op-ed piece in his paper. On Twitter, Ricky L. Jones, chair of Pan-African Studies at the school who wrote the op-ed,…

“PSST! Don’t tell anyone, but the number of Asian Americans will surpass African Americans by the middle of this century,” Ed Diokno wrote Tuesday for AsAmNews. “A recent report from Pew Research Center, 10 Demographic Trends Shaping the U.S., glossed over this hugely significant shift. In one of [the] graphs accompanying the report, it showed…

The outpouring of pixels, print and video memorializing Prince continued unabated on Monday with testimony about the superstar’s allegiance to the black community and especially to black media. In an interview published Sunday with Shenequa Golding of Vibe magazine, publicist Terrie Williams described how she met Prince, who died at 57 on Thursday, through the…

The personal became the professional this week as the sudden death at 57 Thursday of pop music icon Prince led news organizations to include the reminiscences of staff members who grew up listening to—or later reporting on—the superstar. That personal involvement was part of a flood of coverage that engulfed a news media seeking a…

When Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew announced on Wednesday that the face of abolitionist leader HarrietTubman would grace a new $20 bill, NPR reached out to Lonnie Bunch, founding director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. “For me, having Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill really says, first of all, that…

An expose of slavery in Southeast Asia’s fishing industry was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for public service Monday. The Washington Post won the Pulitzer for national reporting for its comprehensive study of fatal shootings by U.S. police officers, and Farah Stockman, who joined the New York Times just days ago as a national correspondent, won…

“The roof is coming apart,” Erick Johnson wrote Monday for the Chicago Crusader. “The creaky wooden porch is aging with growing cracks. And the navy blue paint that once adorned the steps is peeling away. Nearly 100 years ago, this white, two-story house in Chicago’s West Englewood neighborhood on the city’s south side became the…

The story of writer Gay Talese and his offensive remarks to New York Times writer Nikole Hannah-Jones became a story about the Times itself Thursday when Executive Editor Dean Baquet rebuked the Times’ report on the incident and tied it to the news organization’s difficulties with newsroom diversity and inclusion. Talese, who at 84 has…

Gay Talese is a giant in the world of narrative journalism. He is 84 and white. Nikole Hannah-Jones, who is African American, is an investigative reporter who was named the National Association of Black Journalists’ Journalist of the Year for 2015. She is 39 and black. When they met last weekend at Boston University’s The…