culture
-
Just How Did 420 Become Code for Marijuana Smoking Anyway?
Happy 420 to everyone who partakes and those who should partake so they can calm the hell down. As people across the globe prepare to smoke a bowl of their favorite kush or roll a blunt with their favorite sativa, let us take a moment to remember when 420 became the bat-weed signal for potheads…
-
Watch: Morris Day Remembers the Day He Met His Friend Prince
Imagine it: It’s 1970s Minneapolis. A 15-year-old Morris Day is skipping school to go hang out with this band his friend André Cymone formed called Grand Central. (When retelling this story, Day peeped his eyes over his dark sunglasses and said, “Kids, don’t follow my lead on that!”) His friend Cymone invited Day to come…
-
Atlanta, Beyoncé’s Lemonade Named Peabody Award Winners
The Peabody Award entertainment winners were announced Thursday, and Donald Glover’s FX series, Atlanta, and Beyoncé’s visual album Lemonade were among the seven winners. “The audacity of its reach and fierceness of its vision challenges our cultural imagination, while crafting a stunning and sublime masterpiece about the lives of women of color and the bonds…
-
‘I Am Something That You’ll Never Comprehend’: Defining the Legacy of Prince
I still have a hard time processing the idea that Prince is no longer here. Now, I was never a super fan. I never made a pilgrimage to Paisley Park. I only saw him in concert once. And that was only because my bestie followed Prince around the country and insisted that I see him…
-
Fox News Has Replaced Its Most Popular Racist Misogynist With Its Sexist, Racist Rising Star
Ding, dong, the grand wizard is gone. Sadly, the baby grand wizard is already on deck. After much speculation over Bill O’Reilly’s fate at Fox News in the wake of numerous allegations of sexual harassment leveled against him sparking an advertiser mass exodus, the network announced Wednesday that The O’Reilly Factor would be canceled. In…
-
Burn Motherf*cker, Burn!: Sacha Jenkins Digs Deep to Find the Root Causes of the L.A. Riots
In 1992, Los Angeles erupted in violent opposition to the not guilty verdict for four police officers captured on video brutally beating Rodney King within an inch of his life. Twenty-five years later, there is no shortage of documentaries examining the Los Angeles riots. A&E aired South Central native John Singleton’s L.A. Burning Tuesday. ABC…
-
Scandal Recap: Who Died and Made Mellie President?
I’m so tired of Sarah and Peus and the stink they’re leaving all over this show that I’m going to spell “Payus” differently every time I type it. No respect intended. The good news is that this week’s Scandal episode appears to bring us one step closer to getting rid of these two clowns once…
-
Wherever 2 or 3 Black Girls and Oprah Are Gathered Together, Magic Is in the Midst
Earlier this week, journalists were called to a swanky hotel in New York City to sit with the (majority-black) cast and director (George C. Wolfe) of HBO’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. We weren’t given many details—just where to be and at what time. With Oprah Winfrey leading the star-studded cast, we could only…
-
Bill O’Reilly’s Most Outrageous Black Moments
After more than 20 years, Fox News forced Bill O’Reilly out after a series of sexual harassment allegations came to light. What’s worse, after an internal investigation of O’Reilly’s behavior, the company apparently found more. It all came to a head after an April 1 New York Times article revealed that Fox News and Twenty-First…
-
Nothing Can Prepare You for How Powerful The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Is
Writers tell stories in hopes that not only are they read but they also come to life. This is what has happened to Rebecca Skloot’s book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, which chronicles the tragic tale of Lacks, a 31-year-old black woman from Clover, Va., whose terminal-cancer diagnosis and undying cells ended up changing…