culture
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The Woman Behind Black Music Month
Old Negro spirituals. Gospel. Jazz. The blues. R&B. Rock ’n’ roll. Funk. Hip-hop. Black music is almost as old as America itself, yet the monthlong celebration that commemorates it—Black Music Month, celebrated in June—was only created in 1979. How did it come about? Who is behind it? And why do we need it when black…
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Only the Strong: A Superbly Told Tale of Redemption and Survival
What was it like for blacks in America during those painful years immediately following the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination in 1968? This is the subject of Jabari Asim’s debut novel, Only the Strong. In it, Asim, editor of the NAACP’s The Crisis magazine, chronicles the lives of the inhabitants of the fictional Gateway…
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Not for Kids: Is Football Too Dangerous for Our Boys?
It’s the mentality in football: Playing hurt. Playing in pain. Playing with a concussion. NFL star Emmitt Smith recently said that he did it. His peers did it. And others will continue to do it. It’s part of the sport. But it’s that part that’s also taking parents who had been sitting on the fence…
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Power: The Hip-Hop Drama Is Back for Its 2nd Season
As Starz’s gritty New York City drama, Power, settles into its second season, fans are certainly anxious to see which moves James “Ghost” St. Patrick (Omari Hardwick), the drug kingpin-club owner, will make. He wants to go legit while juggling his wife, Tasha (Naturi Naughton), and his renewed high school love, Angela (Lela Loren), who…
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Why Black Women Should Still Get a Mammogram Starting at Age 40, Not 50
In April, the United States Preventive Services Task Force proposed new breast-cancer screening guidelines that advise women to get their first mammogram, the test that screens for breast cancer, at age 50 and then once every two years thereafter. These recommendations are at odds with long-standing advice from organizations like the American Cancer Society, the American…
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Let’s Get 1 Thing Straight: How I Wear My Natural Hair Is None of Your Concern
“I wonder what you would look like with straight hair,” a woman commented on my Instagram page. I’d just posted a picture from an event I was attending. It was a big deal—to me, anyway. I had two-strand-twisted my natural hair that morning, then sat under the dryer that afternoon so there’d be a chance…
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It Pays to Be a Jerk? Not if You’re Black!
The prototypical corporate titan in American business is a jerk. From elementary school on, we’re taught about Andrew Carnegie’s abusive leadership; as adults we’re told that the obnoxious Steve Jobs was a genius and that Donald Trump, for all his hubris and excess, is the American dream personified. And while there was a brief period…
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Tech Pioneers: Sisters Are Doing It for Themselves
It was a pleasantly shocking moment that Dara Solomon and Fela Strickland-Smith will always remember. At Black Enterprise’s Entrepreneurs Summit last month, the magazine awarded the sisters a Small Business Award as Family Business of the Year. The recognition is especially surprising because the sisters launched Satori Interactive in 2004 without any entrepreneurial experience, business…
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How I Got Over the ‘Baby Hair’ Obsession TLC’s Rozonda ‘Chilli’ Thomas Gave Me
Even though it’s been several years since I’ve seen TLC’s quintessential music video for their cautionary song “Waterfalls,” I remember it vividly. The ladies dissolving into liquid like T-1000 from Terminator 2: Judgment Day. The shoulder-shimmy dance embodied cool and was seen at the family cookout that summer. And don’t even get me started on…