culture

Los Angeles’ gang problem has many intricate and labyrinthine causes, all of which have been deconstructed and debated for literally decades. The gang culture in Los Angeles is a well-oiled and self-perpetuating institution with a remarkable capacity for self-renewal that probably best explains the durability of gangs in Los Angeles. The recent debate about whether…

There’s something uniquely New Orleans about being serenaded by an Obama-hat-wearing trumpet player while perched next to the Mississippi River, munching hot beignets buried beneath piles of powdered sugar. Add to that the presence of thousands of doozied up black folks from around the country celebrating the Fourth of July. There, you have the Essence…

Hot, hotter, hottest. Africa Hot. Like someone’s fired up the grill, and you’re what’s cookin’ hot. That’s how it feels when you’re exercising on a triple “H” day, when it’s hazy, hot and humid. Working out with the sun beating down on you isn’t just uncomfortable, but it can be dangerous, particularly if you’re not…

Hallelujah! Have you heard the good news? If not, let me be the first to tell you. BET has FINALLY gotten the ol’ Don Imus treatment. That’s right. Some major sponsors have pulled advertisements from BET, due to the gratuitous violence, profanity and obscenity on some of the cable network’s programs, according to a report…

Whether it’s on the beach blanket or the porch swing—or, for those with little or no vacation time, the commuter train—summertime provides a kind of natural blank slate. Maybe it’s because all your favorite shows are in reruns and the summer movies leave you cold, but suddenly you feel you have time to embark upon…

If you miss the days of irrational exuberance, that halcyon era of the late ’90s when otherwise sensible people spent thousands of dollars on stock in companies they knew nothing about except that their names contained the suffix “.com,” then follow the NBA for the next couple of weeks. The spending of some teams is…

I recently traveled abroad to the Dominican Republic with some of my closest male friends. Before I left, I read Don’t Blame it on Rio: The Real Deal Behind Why Men Go to Brazil for Sex by Jewel Woods and Karen Hunter. At the time I read it, I took some of the accounts in…

Why is coupling such a contentious topic in the black community? Yesterday’s explanation was that black men are all gay and secretly on the “down low.” This pseudo-sociological approach explained everything from high HIV rates among black men and women to why marriage rates are so low. It fed anxieties and provided for salacious stories…

The Fourth of July is complicated for me. It’s my country’s birthday and a national holiday. But I’m not going to wave a miniature Old Glory or dress up like Uncle Sam in red, white and blue. If I go out after dark to see fireworks and listen to John Philip Sousa’s war music, it’s because…

One’s thanks for the work of Jacob Lawrence—an American painter of ingenious vision and remarkable aesthetic grace—must always be twofold. The duality stems from what was, throughout his career, a truly hybrid mission. Lawrence made history with his 1943 “Migration Series,” now on display in its entirety in the airy rooms of the Phillips Collection…