culture

As is often the case in the United States, sometimes I have trouble telling when people are racist or just plain rude. When I checked into my Mexico City bed and breakfast—which had received rave reviews on from Trip Advisor—I sensed a disconnect between the pleasant tone the owner adopted over e-mail (he even complimented…

Health news is almost always depressing when it comes to people of color, especially our black men. Our husbands, fathers, brothers, sons and friends are at least 50 percent more likely to die of a heart attack, stroke, complications from diabetes and cancer than their white counterparts. These numbers represent real men, and it just…

Too tired, too old, too fat, too busy. If these are the excuses you use to bail on your workout then eventually you’ll be too sick and too dead for it to even matter. The most common reason people give for not exercising is the time factor and, yes, I understand that you are over-scheduled…

Okay, so there’s Maddox from Cambodia, Pax from Vietnam, Zahara from Ethiopia, Shiloh from Namibia (well, born there, anyway), and now, new additions, twins Vivienne and Knox, born in France. In less time than it takes to get an undergraduate degree, Angelina Jolie, with some help from partner Brad Pitt, has earned a way more…

It is time to pull this car over and give you gangsta rappers something to cry about. Cry about genocide in Darfur. Cry about the lack of support for the people in Burma. Cry about the displaced New Orleans folks that got gutted and uprooted like seaweed. Cry about poverty, teen-pregnancy rates and joblessness. But,…

The further postponement of the child custody hearing for the children of the late Michael Jackson is evidence that lawyers for both Debbie Rowe and Katherine Jackson are keenly aware that neither woman is perfectly positioned to withstand the scrutiny of a child custody hearing. But Katherine Jackson has a considerably stronger case for custody…

Master TV satirist Stephen Colbert frequently pokes fun at the notions of racial political correctness by having his brash conservative pundit character proclaim that he cannot see race. It’s a simple and reliably funny conceit that plays on the prevalent, if specious, notion that we live in a post-racial era, one that ignores, or optimistically…

“Are you serious?” he asked. And though I was, I couldn’t help but notice the disbelief in his blue eyes, his pale face furrowed in confusion. I searched his expression for an inkling of empathy. There was none. “Why,” he had to wonder, “can’t I say the word ‘nigga’?” Before you judge, consider the confusion,…

The situation is this: Two friends of mine; one white male, one black female. One very incendiary word. And the black girl wasn’t the one who said it.I watched the following exchange with nervous curiosity, my eyes flitting back and forth as if the two were engaged in an intense game of ping-pong. My white…

Thirty years ago this summer, I made my escape from deep in the heart of Texas, where far too many people seemed to think my name was “Uncle Tom” because of my musical tastes. My freedom train left Dallas and stopped at an Ivy League college in New York City; I figured this would be…