culture

Harriette Cole is the author of the book of meditations 108 Stitches: Words We Live By and a contributing editor at The Root. Follow her on Twitter. 

It’s a challenge for African Americans working in California’s Silicon Valley to have a sense of community. Clennita Justice has worked for several technology companies there over the past 25 years. “At many of those companies, you could go for days without seeing another black person,” says the senior engineering program manager, who now works…

I turned 4 the year Vanessa Williams was crowned Miss America. I don’t actually remember the pageant or even the subsequent drama when she was asked to resign 10 months later. I just heard a lot about it growing up. I got the gist: Williams was a black first and that was a big deal.…

What makes the choke-slam, arrest and street detainment of James Blake so remarkably telling is the fact that he is, well, remarkably unprofilable. He’s an underwear-model-ad-handsome and wholesome Harvard grad who’s a retired star in the American sport with perhaps the most affluent demographic. He was also standing in front of an upscale hotel in…

“We wish to plead our own cause. Too long have others spoken for us.” —Freedom’s Journal, first African-American newspaper (1827) Roland S. Martin is no regular newsman. He is a seasoned, outspoken and bold change agent who uses his national platform as a prominent African-American journalist to talk about the issues, politics and policies affecting…

In Scandal, U.S. President Grant Fitzgerald, played by Sam Goldwyn, is having an affair with Kerry Washington’s character, Olivia Pope. In the Starz drama Power, Jamie St. Patrick, a club owner and reluctant drug dealer played by Omari Hardwick, is having an affair with his high school sweetheart Angela Valdez, played by Lela Loren.  Both men…