culture
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Robert Cray: 40 Years of the Blues
Bluesman Robert Cray explains his eclectic 40-year career—and his band’s ability to effortlessly straddle traditional blues, rock and R&B—this way: “We get excited about music still. You never know what might pop up when someone is writing something new.” The five-time Grammy Award winner, and member of the Blues Hall of Fame, has reached a…
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Black Students Don’t Study Abroad, but a New Initiative Hopes to Change That
Be it socioeconomics, lack of general opportunities and resources, or just plain fear of the unknown, when it comes to students of color studying abroad, it just doesn’t happen. A 2014 report by the Institute of International Education shows that 9 percent of U.S. undergraduates study abroad. Of that 9 percent, 75 percent are white,…
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6 Theories on Why People Are in Their Feelings About Halle Berry’s Divorce
Earlier this week, Halle Berry and her husband, French boxer-turned-actor Olivier Martinez, announced that they were splitting after two years of marriage. “We move forward with love and respect for one another and the shared focus of what is best for our son,” the pair said in a joint statement. The breakup is Martinez’s first…
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How to Get Away With Murder Recap: A Woman of Contradictions
Four of the Keating Five were involved in the murder of Annalise Keating’s husband and subsequent cover-up. Asher Millstone was left out of the conspiracy and wasn’t beholden to his professor the same way his body-dumping classmates are. That’s changed. Asher officially joins the group. While Annalise has been running around saving her students and…
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What It’s Like to Be a Black Girl Who Is Assaulted in the Classroom
In 1978, when I was 6 years old, a female teacher assaulted me in a classroom. I was a rambunctious, intellectually curious child who talked a lot in class. I loooooved my homeroom teacher, Ms. S., who was kind and treated me nicely, which was important for a black girl growing up in post-civil-rights-era Lynchburg,…
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Scandal Recap: 29 Times This Episode Had Us, Like, Whoa
This week’s episode kicked off with Sen. Mellie Grant getting caught lying under oath about how long she’s known about her husband’s affair with Olivia Pope. Then Chandra Wilson (Dr. Miranda Bailey on Grey’s Anatomy), who directed the episode, released the emergency brake and let the car careen down the side of the mountain. Here are 29 times…
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Can You Outsmart a 4th-Grader in STEM Knowledge?
Imagine an industry in which there are jobs and nobody to fill them, while African Americans continue to face double-digit rates of unemployment. It’s clear that the job market belongs to those who can master science and math. Among the fastest-growing job sectors are those in STEM careers—science, technology, engineering and math. Not only are…
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A Man’s Take on Being Mary Jane
I remember when Being Mary Jane first hit the BET lineup. I didn’t love the show, but I also didn’t dislike it. I largely watched the show because of black Twitter and the tremendous shade tossed the way of Pauletta Patterson, aka Mary Jane Paul. Mary Jane was one of those women who never saw a bad…
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Sister to Sister: When Breast Cancer Hits Close to Home
Breast cancer is a special and urgent concern for black women. We are 10 percent less likely to develop breast cancer than white women but 40 percent more likely to die from it, particularly when diagnosed in the earlier stages. We are also more likely to develop it earlier (before age 45) and more likely to…
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Meet Cornelius Smith Jr., Scandal’s Newest Gladiator
There’s a new gladiator in town, and his name is Marcus Walker. Well, Scandal fans know he is not completely new. When fans were first introduced to Marcus, he was an activist at the center of a Ferguson, Mo.-esque scenario in which a black male teenager was shot and killed by a white police officer.…