culture

VH1’s Sorority Sisters, the network’s latest reality series with an ensemble cast of African-American women, has been embattled in controversy since a trailer for the show leaked in June. That trailer inspired a petition to keep it from airing, which was signed by thousands. Despite the backlash before the show even began, Sorority Sisters debuted…

The New York City Police Department is taking a hard look at its security protocols in light of the terror attack in France on Wednesday, in which masked gunmen stormed into the offices of Charlie Hebdo, a French satirical newspaper, and killed 12 people, including top journalists, cartoonists and two police officers, the New York…

The Colorado Springs, Colo., chapter of the NAACP was the target of a bombing Tuesday, and while no members of the organization were injured in the explosion, the chapter is adamant that its work must continue.  “We believe in civil rights for all, and really we won’t work in fear and we won’t be deterred,”…

On Saturday, Ultimate Fighting Championship light heavyweight champion Jon Jones defended his title, beating Daniel Cormier in a five-round decision, and on Tuesday, Jones announced that he is entering a drug-treatment facility after testing positive for traces of cocaine. According to Yahoo Sports, Jones was tested on Dec. 4, some weeks before his title defense,…

Adenah Bayoh immigrated to the U.S. when she was just 13, escaping a civil war in her native land, Liberia. She put herself through college by working three jobs, one of which was as a teller for a bank, where she rose up the ranks, became an executive and saved enough money to begin her…

An Irvington, N.J., police captain is under arrest on charges she reportedly stalked and assaulted a Newark, N.J., city councilman. On Monday afternoon Monique Smith, 43, attended a ceremony promoting her to police captain. Later that evening she attended an event at a club in Irvington to celebrate that promotion, according to authorities who spoke…

This year, 2015—the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act and the 150th anniversary of emancipation and the end of the Civil War—is the time to turn nationwide #BlackLivesMatter protests into tangible public policy. The Success-Oriented Funding proposal from the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University offers activists a tangible framework for criminal-justice reform.…

When I visited Detroit in October for the first time since 2009, I saw neighborhoods full of dilapidated homes and the economic devastation that has been widely discussed in documentaries and mainstream media reports over the past five-plus years. But what overwhelmed me was the black pride and black resiliency of Detroiters—the pride that comes…

The costumes worn in the critically acclaimed film Selma tell about an important yet understudied history of the race, class and generational tensions of the Deep South. Few realize how critical dress was in establishing and maintaining the social order of the South. The Jim Crow system was built upon a hierarchy that placed wealthy…

President Barack Obama has made it a priority for his last two years in office to shrink the prisoner population at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp so much that it would become an economic burden if it were kept open any longer, the New York Times reports. Closing the detention camp was an issue he…