Entertainment

(The Root) — I remember exactly where I was when I heard about Whitney Houston’s passing. I’d just hopped into a too-full car of my friends, headed out to dinner. “Are you mourning?” one asked. I asked what she was talking about. “Whitney!” I spent the car ride suspended in disbelief, but when I noticed…

(The Root) — It doesn’t matter how legendary you are; if Twitter thinks you’ve broken the rules, it will give you the boot. Desmond Tutu found this out today when his account was briefly suspended for “aggressive following,” although he didn’t actually break any rules. The human rights activist had just joined Twitter and followed…

(The Root) — If Beyoncé makes some kind of infinitesimal change in her daily life or appearance and her fans aren’t around to see it, will it still make the news? That’s a trick question. Thanks to social media, everything Beyoncé does will always captivate the Internet, and people will devote an entire day, at…

A Dallas toddler drowned in a pool, and police say it happened while her caretaker sat nearby reading Facebook on her phone. Three-year-old Kanyce Giddings was in the care of a family friend, 37-year-old Kariasa Thomas, on June 22 when she drowned in the pool of Thomas’ apartment complex as Kanyce’s three siblings and Thomas’…

(The Root) — Amid the praise Ebony has been getting for its moving visual tribute to Trayvon Martin, the magazine’s Twitter feed has found itself clogged with spiteful attacks from those angry about the homage. Ebony’s special September issue, which will focus on the George Zimmerman trial and its aftermath, will have four different covers:…

(The Root) — Plenty of us have been there: the lone black student in a poetry workshop full of white people, the only Asian family in a neighborhood full of everyone else. It inspires a bevy of feelings: defensiveness, loneliness, irritability. Code Switch, NPR’s blog about race, culture and ethnicity, asked its Twitter followers for…

(The Root) — It looks like Chris Brown has had enough. The embattled singer tweeted today that his next album may be his last before leaving the world of music. He prefaced the announcement with “Don’t worry, mainstream America,” apparently tired of his bad-boy reputation overshadowing his musical talent. Don’t worry mainstream America.After this X…

(The Root) — Aug. 4 was to be a day of protest spearheaded by British journalist Caitlin Moran. White feminists urged everyone upset about Twitter’s lack of action against trolls who make violent threats against women via the website to log off for an entire day, standing in solidarity with those who are attacked online.…

So the White House’s Instagram account is pretty cool, but Pete Souza’s account is awesome. Souza, chief official White House photographer, opened his own Instagram account July 24. Though his pictures occasionally found their way to the White House Instagram account, Souza’s account has a different feel. The tone isn’t as political. Souza posts beautiful…

(The Root) — It’s the president’s birthday, and he’s getting well wishes from everybody from your cousin Greg to Gladys Knight. Even Tavis Smiley hit pause on his bitterness long enough to wish him a happy birthday. There was also a bit of electronic PDA from the first lady, which was just the cutest thing…