culture

I can still see the faces of some of the men and women in the United States armed forces serving in Iraq. Some were smiling, some grimacing, most stared with piercing eyes from behind black shades. Many were hues of brown, most were white. They all deserve to be remembered. It was October 2003. I…

A little more than two years ago, I was in the fourth month of a 6½-month deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom onboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71). The Roosevelt is a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier with the sole mission of dropping bombs on enemy targets. We were somewhere off the coast of Iraq; we…

I belong to a local parenting “listserv,” where moms and dads share information on everything from breastfeeding and circumcision to tantrums and teething. Over the past few weeks, there’s been a persistent topic of both curiosity and debate roiling through our group’s e-mails: vaccine slowdown. Vaccine slowdown, or spreading out the number of shots given…

In Brooklyn-based artist Dave McKenzie’s tantalizing first solo show “Screen Doors on Submarines,” our conversation about race spins and spins like a broken record, our thinking trapped in cycles and rituals like a buggy program stuck in a loop. The work on display at downtown Los Angeles’ REDCAT gallery through June 15 doesn’t necessarily show…

I’m prepared to share a dirty little secret that many of my colleagues at Howard University School of Law would probably prefer I keep to myself. Some of our students are serious lawyers-in-training who seize every opportunity they can to keep abreast of the latest legal developments and to immerse themselves more deeply in the…

Sometimes reporters hype the most dramatic aspect of a story as a way of rooting for it to happen. Other times the press is just clueless. I can’t figure out which scenario is more likely after taking in the coverage of the big news from the National Football League this week. The story is that…

Similar to most kids, I liked new things. Especially when they were shiny. I remember how quickly I lost interest in playing with my C-3PO figurine after it started to dull. So you can imagine that I was a little put off by the fact that Paw Paw, my paternal grandfather, would always wash and…

My own interest in the study of black food culture field began innocently enough as a child at the tables of my mother and grandmother where I savored hot water bread, oxtails and chess pie all the while pondering the logic of pig feet, stewed okra and banana pudding. My interest in the Diaspora grew…

“Cause anytime we mention our condition, our history or existence/They calling it reverse racism.” —Nas’ “N.I.G.G.E.R. (The Slave & The Master)” Contrary to the recent flurry of reports regarding the name change of Nas’ ninth studio album from Nigger to Nas , Nas himself confirms a change, but sets the record straight about the record’s…

The Words I Manifest: Is Conscious Rap Different? And you will find that this perspective is best –-check it out/ These are the words that I manifest. Gang Starr, “Manifest,” No More Mr. Nice Guy A typical take on rap is that whatever Paul Wall and Busta Rhymes are pulling, there is a whole body…