culture

Soccer teams from all over the world are playing right now in South Africa in the Confederations Cup—the group of matches leading up to next year’s World Cup in South Africa. But as teams prepare for 2010’s historic World Cup, the first on the African continent, an important legal case is unfolding in a courtroom…

“1989, a number, another summer, sound of the funky drummer” —Public Enemy, “Fight the Power” One of the most unforgettable images from the summer of 1989 was the video for “Fight the Power,” the theme song for Spike Lee’s classic film Do the Right Thing, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this month. Spike Lee…

My father went home to his glory months before the election of Barack Obama as the first black president. In the difficult days before his death, there was little opportunity to even consider such a possibility, but I have vivid memories of his reaction to another black first. It was the fall of 1974, when…

Blacks native to America—or JBs are we are sometimes wont to call them—are not well-represented in the Ivy League. Black immigrant student or those who parents are immigrants are, by contrast, overrepresented in relative to their figures in the general population. Few are aware of this fact because both groups are ostensibly Black. On the…

Black men need their swagger and their game, but on Fathers’ Day it is worth remembering a little vulnerability is not the worst thing in the world.  In spite of the compelling TCBY promotion that offers a free yogurt for dad on Father’s Day, many of us are in search of a more  substantive and…

Al Jefferson are you ready for your closeup? That question is premature, but probably not by much. Jefferson is the all-star-caliber power forward for the Minnesota Timberwolves, and if you know his game well, then your Basketball Jones is certifiable. To casual basketball fans, he’s just another good player on a team that is going…

Ben Cartwright. That’s who I’m picking for fittest TV dad. Lorne Greene was the embodiment of the athletic, rugged dad ridin’ ‘round the Ponderosa with his strapping sons. On the other end of the spectrum is Tony Soprano, inhaling meatball sandwiches while terrorizing his kids and having his enemies whacked (too lazy to do it…

The video’s a bit old, but the perspective is both cringe-inducing and thought-provoking.

A country notorious for having one of the highest levels of rape in the world, a recent South African study on the issue showed that 25 percent of the participants admitted to having raped, some claiming to having been multiple-time offenders. The study, conducted by the Medical Research Council on the correlation between rape and…