culture

With Halloween approaching, we’ll soon see a rash of stories about young white college students who feel compelled to apologize for an unfortunate Instagram photo that depicts them in blackface at a campus party. The kind of real-life incidents that inspired the new film Dear White People. Yet despite the ambivalence, awkwardness and, sometimes, revulsion…

This year we selected writer Ta-Nehisi Coates as the top honoree on The Root 100, our annual list of influential and high-achieving African Americans. It was June when The Atlantic published his widely read and highly acclaimed cover article, “The Case for Reparations,” which “lays bare a compelling argument for the pecuniary redress of Africans brought…

On Friday Leshawn Williams, a defensive lineman for Northeast High School in Florida, took a nasty spill, and at first everyone believed it affected his knee. He would most likely miss the rest of the season. The game was delayed for almost 30 minutes as team medics tried to figure out if there was just…

Outside the world of film and TV, few had probably ever heard the term “painting down” until earlier this month, when Warner Bros. Television apologized for wanting to use a white stuntwoman in dark-skinned makeup in its Fox TV show Gotham. The embarrassed production company said it would hire an African-American stuntwoman instead. Yet any…

An American couple have been held in Qatar for nearly two years after the death of their daughter. According to Yahoo News, Matthew and Grace Huang have been accused by the Qatar government of starving their adopted daughter Gloria to death. After Gloria was found unresponsive and subsequently passed away on Jan. 15, 2013, the…

British actor Daniel Radcliffe, best known for his role as Harry Potter, proves that he is also a lyrical wizard. On Tuesday Radcliffe performed “Alphabet Aerobics” by rap duo Blackalicious on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. If you aren’t familiar with the song, it lives up to its title as a tongue-twisting journey through…

Editor’s note: This video contains graphic images. In 2012 eight Saginaw, Mich., police officers surrounded a 49-year-old mentally ill, homeless man armed only with a penknife and shot him some 46 times. On Monday the American Civil Liberties Union released the disturbing footage, the New York Daily News reports. According to reports, police received a…

It’s almost unfathomable, but some soldiers in Nigeria’s military might be working as moles for Boko Haram, giving the terrorist group vital information about the military’s strategies and tactics. That’s what the Nigerian military is claiming, and it has arrested those soldiers who it suspects are working as double agents for Boko Haram, AllAfrica.com is…

Heads are rolling in the upper ranks of New York City’s Department of Correction because of the way it has handled allegations of violence and corruption at the city’s Rikers Island prison. The New York Times is reporting that three executives, including the department chief, William Clemons, got pink slips earlier this week.  “The department has been…