culture

Before the St. Louis Rams would destroy the Oakland Raiders 52-0 on Sunday at Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis, they wanted protesters in Ferguson, Mo., and all around the world to know that they stood in solidarity with them.   Five St. Louis Rams players emerged from the tunnel during pregame introductions and stood with…

On a brisk day around 4:30 p.m. in Pontiac, Mich., a black man was walking down the street with his hands in his pockets when a police officer stopped him. His charge: walking with his hands in his pockets.   This is not a joke. Video of the incident, which has been making the rounds across…

Over the weekend Darren Wilson, the Ferguson Missouri police officer who wasn’t indicted for fatally shooting unarmed teen Michael Brown, resigned from the police force, and the Ferguson mayor says that this ends the relationship between the city and Wilson. According to the Associated Press, Wilson, who had been on paid administrative leave since the…

Imagine going through your entire childhood having to hide your HIV-positive status because your mother wanted to protect you from being shunned, humiliated, bullied or abused like the late Ryan White, the Indiana teenager who contracted AIDS from a blood transfusion in 1984. Now imagine keeping that secret even as a college student while engaging…

New Orleans Saints player Benjamin Watson penned one of the most-talked-about essays in the aftermath of last Monday’s racial violence in Ferguson, Mo. The heartfelt essay discusses Watson’s personal feelings regarding the killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown and the St. Louis County grand jury’s decision not to indict police Officer Darren Wilson in connection with…

Watching the demonstrations in Ferguson, Mo., I couldn’t escape thinking what impact they might be having on protesters’ employment status. Fifty-two years ago, Fannie Lou Hamer lost her home and her job as a sharecropper because she dared to attempt to register herself and 17 other blacks to vote in Mississippi. Hamer said of losing these…

“What the hell is Janay Palmer thinking?” It was the question asked by nearly everyone who saw “that video,” the one that clearly showed Palmer’s then-fiance, former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice, knocking her unconscious on an elevator, then dragging her limp body off it. She’d stayed with Rice after that—married him, even. And…

While Bill Cosby’s Far From Finished Tour is still scheduled to make a stop in Tarrytown, N.Y., on Dec. 6, the beleaguered comic—amid increasing allegations of sexual assault—has finally agreed to offer refunds to those who want them, according to the Journal News. An email was sent Friday from the Tarrytown Music Hall box office,…

A 13-year-old boy reported missing four years ago was found behind a “false wall” in the suburban-Atlanta home of his father and stepmother on Friday, according to NBC News, citing police reports. The unidentified child reportedly used a smartphone to contact his sister online, and she gave the message to their mother, Clayton County, Ga.,…

Last week, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn granted clemency to a man who had been cleared of murder but who still faced a felony record for skipping out on bond during his trial, the Chicago Tribune reports. The man was part of a group of men known as the Dixmoor Five. The four other men were…