culture
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Black Community in Fla. Gets a New Swimming Pool 40 Years Later
It’s summer. It’s hot, and one quick, easy way to cool off is to take a dip in a pool. But members of a black community in Hallandale Beach, Fla., have been waiting 40 years to do just that. A new pool is slated to open July 12 in B.F. James Park, named after a…
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Favela Chic: Gentrifying the Slums of Brazil
A walk through Rio de Janeiro’s Vidigal favela is a full sensory experience on any given day. The smell of grilled meat mixes with that of exhaust from motorcycle taxis traversing the slum’s corridors as well as the scent of excrement from the legion of stray dogs that roam the streets. Add in the engulfing…
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Ford to Donate $1M to Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture
Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture received a major show of support from the Ford Motor Co. on July 4. Smithsonian and Ford mutually announced the $1 million endowment at the 20th anniversary of the Essence Festival in New Orleans, with the Twitter hashtag #fordgivesback. Once the museum—spanning a 5-acre plot on…
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Ga. Runaways Wanted in Shooting Caught After Mocking Police Online
If you’re on the run (and not in the Beyoncé-Jay Z kind of way) from the police, you might not want to boast and brag online while detailing your activities. Some might see this as common sense, but for accused College Park, Ga., fugitives Shanice Weaver and Jonathan Bankston … not so much, 11 Alive…
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LeBron James Is Going Back to Cleveland
After what seems like an eternity of having fans, haters and even the entire National Basketball Association at the edge of their seats, LeBron James has finally made a decision. The 29-year-old has announced that he will be returning to the Cleveland Cavaliers, where he was drafted straight out of high school in 2003 and…
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LGBT Center’s 26-Year-Old 1st Black Chair Faces Racial Hostility
According to North Carolina’s Charlotte Post, the LGBT Community Center of Charlotte has elected Ranzeno Frazier as its youngest and first African-American chair of its board of trustees. But not everyone is happy about his groundbreaking role. Frazier’s selection was met with both positive and negative responses, with naysayers taking issue with his age and experience, the…
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Police Use Breast Implants’ Serial Numbers to ID Dead Woman
A Gary, Ind., woman who had been missing since July 3 was found dead in the trunk of an abandoned car, having suffered several stab wounds and blunt force trauma to the head, the Lake County (Ind.) Coroner’s Office told the Chicago Sun-Times. The woman, whose body was found Monday, was identified Wednesday as Decarol…
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Detroit Activists Arrested After Blocking Trucks Sent to Turn Off Water
Activists in Detroit are resisting attempts by the city’s water provider to take away water from nonpaying consumers, resorting to even temporarily blocking trucks sent to do the deed, Al-Jazeera reports. On Thursday, at least nine of some 50 protesters were arrested following a protest outside Homrich, the company paid by the Detroit Water and…
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Judge: GOP Conspired to ‘Manipulate’ Redistricting in Fla.
A Florida judge has tossed the state’s congressional map, ordering two districts to be redrawn, in a move that may affect neighboring districts and strongly impact Republican influence, the New York Times reports. In his scathing decision late Thursday, Judge Terry P. Lewis of the state’s 2nd Judicial Circuit demanded that two of Florida’s districts…
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Should I Snitch on a Friend Who Slept With Another Friend’s Husband?
I have a friend who recently confessed to me that she slept with a mutual friend’s husband. The same mutual friend invited everyone over to her house, and my friend came, acting like everything was OK. I thought it was inappropriate for her to be there and didn’t speak to her other than to say…