culture
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What Diabetes-Ravaged Mumia Abu-Jamal Looks Like Now
New photos of an apparently frail and ill Mumia Abu-Jamal, with visibly darkened, hardened skin as a result of complications from diabetes, were released Tuesday morning via email by his supporters, friends and family. They are continuing to maintain a vigil outside State Correctional Institution Mahanoy, the Pennsylvania prison where the 60-year-old former Black Panther…
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20 Years Later, Bad Boys Is Still a Must-See
The music, opening scene and skyline made you feel as if you were back in the ’80s, about to watch Axel Foley take down the gang responsible for the “alphabet crimes.” When you saw the Porsche and realized that its occupants weren’t Taggart and Rosewood but Martin Lawrence and Will Smith, and you saw that…
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For DC, Easter Monday at the National Zoo Is an African-American Tradition
For most families, Easter festivities may have concluded on Sunday as they tossed out the eggs and retired their Sunday best back to their closets, but in Washington, D.C., celebration was still in order on Easter Monday. Beyond Sunday’s church ceremonies, bunnies and delightfully colorful eggs, for many families in D.C., the “Easter panda” is…
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‘Banning the Box’ Helps Prisoners Become People
“Have you ever been found guilty of a felony?” For too many people, that question is the difference between living a life of dignity and living a life of shame and bitterness. Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe made a bold move Friday and signed an executive order to “ban the box.” Through this statewide initiative, state…
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In Toni Morrison’s Latest Novel, Children’s Lives Matter
Toni Morrison is, inarguably, the greatest living writer of our time. She has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the American Book Award, a Presidential Medal of Freedom and the National Book Critics Circle Lifetime Achievement Award. She is also the last American to have won the Nobel Prize. Her books have been canonized as classics…
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Campus Racism: Teachable Moment or Serious Threat?
Last month the campus of University of Maryland at College Park was rocked when an inflammatory email sent by Kappa Sigma Fraternity member A.J. Hurwitz became public. In the email, Hurwitz used racial slurs to refer to African-American and Asian women, urging the fraternity to exclude them from parties. He also urged fraternity members to…
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For Better or Worse, #BlackTwitter Cannot Be Denied
When news breaks — whether it is deemed “ratchet” or “racist” — black Twitter is on the case. In recent years, African American social media users have taken advantage of platforms like Twitter and Instagram, turning them into a megaphone. While many reduce black Twitter to a haven for jokes about reality shows, it’s actually…
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Misty Copeland to Dance Swan Lake at DC’s Kennedy Center
History will be made at the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater on the evening of Thursday, April 9, when Misty Copeland, a soloist with the American Ballet Theatre, joins Brooklyn Mack of the Washington Ballet in a performance of Swan Lake. Copeland and Mack, both African American, will go where no dancers of color have gone…
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Handing Out Seed Money so That Black Tech Startups Can Grow
In this high-tech world we live in—where tech startups are creating new apps and gadgets daily that can do everything from ordering food to hailing a cab—the fact that black entrepreneurs make up only 1 percent of the founders of tech startups that receive major financial backing is pretty abysmal. But there are several programs…
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National Action Network Hosts Its Annual Convention in NYC
Last month I was in Selma, Ala., as the nation commemorated the 50th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday,” when peaceful voting-rights demonstrators were viciously beaten by police. Their dedication to equality and justice resonated with people from varying backgrounds and eventually helped usher in the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Five decades after that historic day…