culture

As we read MSNBC’s report about yet another sad study on the decline of marriage for successful black women, the very single Hill Harper releases The Conversation: How Black Men and Women Can Build Loving, Trusting Relationships, and Steve Harvey’s book, Act Like a Lady, Think Like A Man still gets quoted, I find myself…

2,721. That’s how many hits it took for Derek Jeter to tie Lou Gehrig’s Yankee record. The hit came last night against the Tampa Bay Rays in the seventh inning. From ESPN: “It’s just kind of mind-boggling to know my name is next to his,” Jeter said after the Yankees’ 4-2 victory. Jeter had a…

Most of my reading in the last week has been devoted to NFL previews. I know that most of the predictions are wrong, but I can’t help myself. The NFL is by far the most volatile league of the three major North American team sports. This time last year, you would’ve been laughed at for…

“You lie.” Those words may greatly affect Joe Wilson’s political career in the days to come. Last night, during the president’s address to the Congress, Wilson expressed his displeasure at the president’s claim that health insurance reform would not cover illegal immigrants. Wilson took it upon himself to have a town hallian outburst then and…

This summer, I spent six weeks in Cape Town teaching human rights to a multiracial group of South Africans and Americans—many of whom wanted to party on Long Street more than they wanted to study human rights. Still, I managed to get their attention long enough for us to focus on two recurring issues—housing and…

The latest from CNN: The hijackers — possibly Bolivians or Colombians — took control of the Boeing 737 Aeromexico jet as it flew from the resort town of Cancun. They said a cardboard box they were carrying contained a bomb, which they threatened to blow up if their demand to speak to President Felipe Calderon…

If you are a black woman with an advanced degree, there’s a good chance you’ve never been married. New research from Yale University suggests that highly educated black women are twice as likely to have never been married by the age of 45 as white women with similar education. Hannah Bruckner, who leads the Center…

Lubna Ahmed al-Hussein wore trousers in an effort to challenge Sudan’s decency laws. Authorities toss her in jail and threatened her with a penalty of forty lashes for her flouting of the nation’s laws. A Khartoum judge thought the forty lashes was a bit over the top and told her to pay the $200 fine…

Holding the body of the son he’d lost in a terrible car accident, Amilcar Hill looked across the room at his long-time girlfriend Rahwa Ghirmatzion and proposed. They had been together for years, raising their son Asa together in Buffalo, always putting off marriage because it seemed “superficial and unnecessary.” But it wasn’t to their…