culture
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Calling a Black Girl’s Hair Cotton Candy: Not Cool, Right?
Hopefully you can help me. My daughters are African American and attend a predominantly Caucasian-Hispanic school. Their friends touch their hair and comment on their hair and tell them their hair looks like cotton candy. My daughter came home and told me and said, “Everyone loves cotton candy; that’s so cool.” But is it really? How do I address issues like…
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The Phenomenal Women of Freedom Summer
Over a 10-week period, 1964’s Freedom Summer brought together nearly 700 student volunteers, local residents and other civil rights activists to work to ensure that African Americans in Mississippi could exercise their right to vote. But without the tireless work of these eight dedicated women, the movement as we know it wouldn’t have been the…
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Minneapolis Locals Slam Bar Louie Dress Code as Covertly Racist
Bar Louie, located in uptown Minneapolis, has been accused of implementing a dress code that has drawn the ire of some local residents who say it indirectly targets black people, reports Fox 9. The bar’s new policy prohibits attire such as fitted caps, athletic apparel like sports jerseys, ostentatious chains, oversized white T-shirts and other…
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NFL Hall of Famer Jim Brown: 1964 Championship Ring Was Stolen
The 1964 NFL championship ring belonging to former Cleveland Browns star Jim Brown is a prize in anyone’s eyes. However, the ring, which is up for auction at Lelands, was stolen from the famed running back 40 years ago, he claims, according to the Associated Press. Brown says that the claim that he authenticated the…
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NY Mother in Custody After Baby Abandoned on Subway Platform
On Monday around 11:50 a.m., a young mother riding the New York City subway with her 7-month-old baby waited for the subway car to come to a stop at Manhattan’s Columbus Circle station. Once the doors opened, the mother pushed the red-and-white polka-dot stroller that the baby was seated in onto the subway platform. The…
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Missing NYC World War II Veteran Found in Las Vegas
Last week Richard Micheaux, a decorated World War II veteran, put on his U.S. Open logo cap, blue carpenter jeans, an off-white shirt with black and red stripes and brown shoes, with his dog tags proudly draped around his neck. Micheaux, 93, headed out his door last Tuesday morning for what was supposed to be…
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Leading Black Producers on Broadway Adapt Film Black Orpheus
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage and Tony Award winner George C. Wolfe are looking to ride the Brazilian wave energized by the World Cup and the upcoming 2016 Summer Olympics by bringing the film Black Orpheus to Broadway, the Associated Press reports. The musical’s producers will be Stephen Byrd, Alia Jones-Harvey and Paula Marie Black.…
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Cuba: Is It Time to Turn Enemies Into Frenemies?
You can’t ignore a rogue Caribbean communist island a jump from the Florida coast, especially when it’s run by guys named Castro. But President Obama didn’t want his spot blown when he sent a low-key missive to Cuban President Raúl Castro just a couple of weeks ago. There was very little noise made when he…
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Janet Mock Breaks Through the Isolation for Transgender Women of Color
I recently added a new name to my list of inspirational writers: Janet Mock. Her best-selling memoir, Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love and So Much More, is a beautiful—at times bumpy—journey through girlhood. Reminiscent of Zora Neale Hurston’s iconic Their Eyes Were Watching God, it is a touching story of self-realization and self-love.…
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Credit Invisibility Means Less Economic Opportunity in Black America
“I am invisible, understand,” Ralph Ellison famously wrote, “simply because people refuse to see me.” He was speaking of the double consciousness that accompanied the burden of blackness in America more than 60 years ago. But according to Yale professor Frederick Wherry, this conundrum is not just social and political but also economic—and that sense of…