culture

My earnest devotion to the Love & Hip Hop franchise is quite well-documented. When it comes to the general thoughts that consume me any day of the week, it goes 1) ranking various chicken establishments by seasoning and breading, 2) praying that Serge Ibaka will finally respond to my DMs and 3) rabidly consuming the latest…

I was raised by two civil rights activists, one of whom was born in the ’30s in the Deep South, the other raised in Newark, N.J. It goes without saying that the very idea of “talking back” was unheard of in my household. We couldn’t even look back, much less talk back. So why does…

In the Heart of the Sea is the latest film from director Ron Howard, a special effects extravaganza with a rumored $100 million price tag. With a star-studded cast, it tells the story of the whaling ship Essex, which was attacked by a giant killer whale in 1820, a survivor’s tale so stirring that it…

So far, there hasn’t been a challenge that Lupita Nyong’o hasn’t mastered. Whether it’s nailing her breakout role as Patsey in the unflinching 12 Years a Slave to Oscar perfection or owning the Broadway stage in Eclipsed, penned by fellow African actress Danai Gurira, her everywomanness has yet to fail. In Star Wars: The Force…

In the canon of black films, The Color Purple—released Dec. 18, 1985—will always have a space in the top 10. Based on the novel by Alice Walker and directed by Steven Spielberg, the film—lusciously shot and performed with an aching realness by an all-star cast—was heralded immediately as one of the most nuanced portrayals of…

“There are folks who think I’m just a writer, and that is absolutely untrue,” Kevin Powell begins. “I’ve been an activist for 30 years.” He has just gotten off the phone with a woman from Guyana who is seeking his help to obtain an organ transplant for her sick father in New Jersey. Powell, one…

Abigail Fisher is the average-est white woman in the history of average white women. Her averageness is so average, it’s aggressive. Enthusiastic. Transformative. It boldly goes where no average has gone before. She’s unambiguously average. Obnoxiously average. Disruptively average. If she were a character in Star Wars, her name would be Darth Average. She’s to “average…

Something in the way Sam’s Club CEO Rosalind Brewer said it, or a verb or two by the way she threw it, made a bunch of white people run scared into a corner. Correctly miffed by the absence of any female or “of color” representation at a recent negotiating table, Brewer went brave and did…

So. Sports Illustrated named Serena Williams its 2015 Sportsperson of the Year, the first time an individual woman has won the award in more than 30 years. In a lengthy essay, the publication lauded Williams’ remarkable professional accomplishments, then got to the more important reasons why Williams was chosen: “Because Williams kept pushing herself to…