culture
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Let’s Be Real: Society Finds Black Women With Curvy Bodies ‘Inappropriate,’ Not Their Clothes
Patrice Brown, also known as #TeacherBae, is a fourth-grade teacher in Atlanta. Because of her ability to have her students excel in the classroom, Brown has received the Educator of the Month award. This week, however, Brown is being talked about all across social media, not for her body of work but for her body at work—and her…
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Calif.’s Recreational-Weed Bill Could Be a Game Changer
Editor’s note: This article is part of an ongoing series that looks at the growing legal marijuana industry and its effect on the black community. Sue Taylor, 69, is a force of nature. The retired Catholic-school principal and grandmother of three is also one of the first African-American senior citizen owners of a cannabis dispensary. She’s based…
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Trouble With the Curve … in Fashion
“Please fit … please fit … please fit …” This was the prayer I sent up, standing in my underwear, eyeing the rack of gowns that had been chosen for me. After years of modeling, it wasn’t an unfamiliar scenario, but this was different. I wasn’t being fit for a retailer’s catalog or campaign, but…
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King of Pain: 20 Years Later, Tupac Shakur’s Problematic Genius Still Haunts Us
The aphorism goes, “Stars are born, not made.” I understood this twice in childhood: the first time I saw Magic Johnson on television, and the moment in Digital Underground’s “Same Song” video when a resplendent Tupac Shakur burst into the public consciousness on a chariot, wearing a dashiki and kufi, and holding a scepter that…
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Can You Sue Your College? President Obama Says Yes You Can
When I was in college at the University of Virginia, every year they had an event called Spring Fling. Spring Fling (as opposed to the much colder, gloomier Fall Fling) was the visitation weekend for all African-American students who’d been accepted to UVA, and it was a huge party. There were big concerts and fashion…
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Black Solidarity With First Nations Is Complicated, Sacred and Necessary
I was born and raised as a descendant of enslaved Africans on Ute, Cheyenne and Arapaho land. I was born on the front range of the Rocky Mountains where Pike’s Peak’s massive snowcapped summit caused the sun to set 20 minutes earlier. Raised on a small family ranch with pigs, sheep and llamas, I grew…
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Hey, Michael Rapaport: Liking Hip-Hop Doesn’t Mean You Get to Tell Black People How to Feel
You know how this goes. You’re chilling, waiting for the bread and circuses that are the start of the NFL season, when your homie forwards you a link on Twitter, along with his own commentary: “Did you read this b.s.?” You know in your gut that some white person just said something dumb because ……
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What Does Nick Young Have to Do With Derrick Rose's Rape Allegations?
Nick Young is having a pretty bad year. In March, rookie Los Angeles Lakers point guard D’Angelo Russell secretly recorded Young talking about cheating on his then-fiancee Iggy Azalea. The recording was leaked and went viral, and Azalea dumped Young. Then a onetime teammate, being the friend that he is, posted a video of this…