culture

Tuesday mornings, after the children are delivered to school, I lose the business-casual attire of a working, suburban mommy, in favor of: — Sweat pants. (Pale yellow, loose-fitting.) — A short sleeved T-shirt. (Either the black-and-gold Parliament Funkadelic throwback or one of the many I own that are emblazoned with school or sport-team logos.) —…

Most men have gotten used to observing their wives or significant others grin at the TV whenever Sen. Barack Obama graces the screen. The Democratic nominee does not even have to be delivering one of his historic speeches—which seems to be every other day—to elicit such an adoring response. What men might not be accustomed…

I wish Brett Favre would go away. I don’t mean that in a bad way. He’s my mother’s favorite player. And as a Chicago Bears fan, I can say that beating the Packers won’t be as much fun without No. 4 to chase out of the pocket. I mean I wish Favre would go away…

Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated celebrated a century of service this week. The Root takes a look back in pictures. ********** Lay Off Soror Barbie! Don’t let outdated stereotypes about AKAs stop us from celebrating the new black Barbie. ********** A ComplAKAted Kind of Sisterhood I love my pink and green, but we need to…

Honestly, I can’t get worked up about it. Maybe because it’s summertime. Maybe because economic analysts are predicting more than 100 U.S. banks could fail this year, and the bank-run scene from It’s a Wonderful Life keeps flashing through my mind. (Maybe I should mosey on down to the local branch.) Or maybe because it’s…

Jazz singer Rene Marie recently courted controversy when she performed at the “State of the City” address by Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper. Expected to sing the “Star Spangled Banner,” Marie instead broke out into a rendition of “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” Some have complained, including Colorado congressman Tom Tancredo, that Marie needlessly made a…

When I’m correctly tagged as a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, I’d like to think that it’s because I exude ambition, class and a belief in paying it forward. Experience has taught me otherwise. Some people look no further than the color of my skin and length of my hair. The stereotype of…

Baseball’s All-Star game is this week, but I regard the mid-season break in the action as more significant than the game itself. Now that we have dozens of interleague games crowding the schedule, the All-Star game itself feels kind of unnecessary. Yes, it determines home field advantage in the World Series, but the last World…

While you weren’t looking, no doubt tracking the fortunes of the Hope, Will Smith became the world’s biggest movie star. With the financial success of his superhero comedy Hancock ($62 million domestic on opening weekend, $190 million in its first full week global), Smith can claim five films that opened at No. 1 on July…

I covered my first NAACP convention 11 years ago in Pittsburgh. Next week will mark my second, again in the city where I live (now Cincinnati). A lot has changed; then I was an intern at the New Pittsburgh Courier, my hometown black paper. Today, I’m a bona fide journalist with a serious body of…