culture
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Walter Mosley Refuses to Be Boxed In
Walter Mosley’s website lists books he’s written. Right now there are 48: 43 fiction and five nonfiction. And later this year, he’ll add to the list—a highly intellectual book titled, Folding the Red Into the Black: Developing a Viable Untopia for Human Survival in the 21st Century, which is due out in October. “It’s a…
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Pinklining: The Financial Threat More Women of Color Are Facing
The Great Recession is over. The economy is back on its feet. That’s the popular narrative Americans see and hear every day, but the impact of the financial crisis is still being felt across the country, especially by women of color. A new report (pdf) highlights how “pinklining,” a term most people have probably never…
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Alton Sterling, Philando Castile and the Hypocritical Screams of White America After the Dallas Cop Shootings
There was a moment when white Americans felt the dread black Americans live with daily. It happened Dec. 14, 2012, when a shooter entered a Newtown, Conn., elementary school and fatally shot 20 children between the ages of 6 and 7. The notion of safety was shown to be a fraud. The unfairness and vulnerability…
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It's Not About You: 5 Things That May Not Label You Racist, but Racist Adjacent
It’s official: America is going through something serious right now. There are multiple shootings of black people at the hands of law enforcement that have left many families confused and in mourning; there was a sniper shooting that killed five police officers in Dallas; and I mostly fear that the violent and horrific stories aren’t…
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Did the NY Daily News’ Graphic Cover Image of Alton Sterling Go Too Far?
On Thursday the New York Daily News published on its cover a graphic image of the slain body of Alton Sterling, who was killed by a Baton Rouge, La., police officer Tuesday night. The image was a screenshot from one of two widely circulating cellphone videos of Sterling’s demise, the result of multiple shots fired…
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Black Trauma and Self-Care: How Can Black People Heal After Witnessing Excessive Violence Against Our Own?
Police shootings seem to be a normal occurrence these days. It’s a scary reminder that despite how often we chant “Black lives matter,” for many in law enforcement and people without melanin, our lives are disposable. With the frequency of such shootings, we’ve been bombarded with graphic videos and photos of victims all over our…
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What to Do if You Find Out That Pop-Pop Is a THOT
Much like the instantaneous, fame-adjacent status he procured by being shown wearing trendy clothes that showed off his ankles on the internet, the older black gentleman known as “Mr. Steal Your Grandma” has hastily fallen from many folks’ good graces. Much of it has to do with a since-deleted Facebook status in which Irvin Randle…
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We Can Grieve 5 Officers and the Black Men Shot by Police at the Same Time
The pain I feel for the deaths of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling has not subsided since I learned that five Dallas officers had been fatally shot in their name. In fact, the pain has been multiplied by five. The news broke for me Thursday night on social media. Cops were being shot at a…
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In Honor of Jaden Smith’s 18th Birthday, Here Are His Most Bizarre Tweets
It’s safe to say that Jaden Smith is a little … strange. With a catalog of tweets, and a record number of interesting interviews to prove it, the child star seems to be living life on his own terms—and also in his own world. Today, on his 18th birthday, we celebrate Smith’s embrace of his…